Bedouin Wedding in the Egyptian desert. Check.
Additional day doing a blissful nothing in a grass hut on the Red Sea. Check.
Next stop: St. Katherine's Monastery & Mt. Sinai.
Admittedly, I know very little about Catholicism. I have been to Notre Dame in Paris (even sang in it with a Choir!), Il Duomo in Milano, Vatican City even. But being LDS, I don't really identify with much of the business that goes on in Catholic places.
But.
I appreciate them. I appreciate the beauty of the Cathedrals, the churches and sanctuaries and the artwork and the history that has been preserved. (Yes, no matter whose spin on history it actually was!) I appreciate the good that comes from monasteries and other places that are created with the intent to help humanity.
So while I wandered around St. Katherine's, a monastery set up in the year 600 AD at the base of Mt. Sinai, I had no clue what the symbols and artwork stood for, what the deal with the holy relic system was or why everyone was touching a large shrub and pushing prayers into the rock walls surrounding it, (turns out it's supposed to be THE Burning Bush... I'm skeptical. I will not lie.) I enjoyed the antiquity around me. The culture. The history present in the ancient, cracked and crumbling walls. And I observed the crowds pushing through the place. The people wandered through with various levels of intensity on their faces. Some were devout Catholics, it was plain to see. They reverenced the place in it's entirety, soaking it in. Others were interested in the Crusades, or the region, or nothing at all. Whatever reasons brought us all together there (my reason for being there was that my tour stopped there, quite simply), I reverenced the opportunity to observe.
After an hour or so, we drove to our small, budget hotel to unpack, rest and enjoy a hearty meal of tomato chicken, rice, flatbread, hummus and the ever-present and delicious sliced tomatoes before heading back to the Monastery and begin an evening hike to the top of Mt. Sinai.
Additional day doing a blissful nothing in a grass hut on the Red Sea. Check.
Next stop: St. Katherine's Monastery & Mt. Sinai.
Admittedly, I know very little about Catholicism. I have been to Notre Dame in Paris (even sang in it with a Choir!), Il Duomo in Milano, Vatican City even. But being LDS, I don't really identify with much of the business that goes on in Catholic places.
But.
I appreciate them. I appreciate the beauty of the Cathedrals, the churches and sanctuaries and the artwork and the history that has been preserved. (Yes, no matter whose spin on history it actually was!) I appreciate the good that comes from monasteries and other places that are created with the intent to help humanity.
So while I wandered around St. Katherine's, a monastery set up in the year 600 AD at the base of Mt. Sinai, I had no clue what the symbols and artwork stood for, what the deal with the holy relic system was or why everyone was touching a large shrub and pushing prayers into the rock walls surrounding it, (turns out it's supposed to be THE Burning Bush... I'm skeptical. I will not lie.) I enjoyed the antiquity around me. The culture. The history present in the ancient, cracked and crumbling walls. And I observed the crowds pushing through the place. The people wandered through with various levels of intensity on their faces. Some were devout Catholics, it was plain to see. They reverenced the place in it's entirety, soaking it in. Others were interested in the Crusades, or the region, or nothing at all. Whatever reasons brought us all together there (my reason for being there was that my tour stopped there, quite simply), I reverenced the opportunity to observe.
"The Burning Bush" and Me. Being skeptical.
After an hour or so, we drove to our small, budget hotel to unpack, rest and enjoy a hearty meal of tomato chicken, rice, flatbread, hummus and the ever-present and delicious sliced tomatoes before heading back to the Monastery and begin an evening hike to the top of Mt. Sinai.
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