{"id":30829,"date":"2014-05-26T16:36:09","date_gmt":"2014-05-26T20:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/?p=30829"},"modified":"2014-05-26T16:38:18","modified_gmt":"2014-05-26T20:38:18","slug":"pope-francis-at-the-western-wall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2014\/05\/pope-francis-at-the-western-wall\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Francis at the Western Wall"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Francis-at-the-Western-Wall-May-26-2014.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-30830 alignleft\" alt=\"Francis at the Western Wall May 26 2014\" src=\"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Francis-at-the-Western-Wall-May-26-2014-300x195.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"195\" srcset=\"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Francis-at-the-Western-Wall-May-26-2014-300x195.jpg 300w, https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Francis-at-the-Western-Wall-May-26-2014.jpg 964w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Earlier today the Holy Father went to the Western Wall (AKA the &#8220;Wailing Wall&#8221;), where he silently prayed touching the remaining portion of Herod&#8217;s temple. I was profoundly moved by the simple gesture of the Pope; in fact, I was similarly moved in a deep way when Saint John Paul and Pope Benedict visited the Wall in silent prayer. All prayed to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob for the gift of peace.<\/p>\n<p>The Vatican press says that Francis left a hand-written Our Father in Spanish; the tradition is to insert in the cracks of the Wall a prayer.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Pope-Francis-with-Rabbi-and-Imman-2014.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-30831 alignright\" alt=\"Pope Francis with Rabbi and Imman 2014\" src=\"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Pope-Francis-with-Rabbi-and-Imman-2014-300x165.jpeg\" width=\"300\" height=\"165\" srcset=\"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Pope-Francis-with-Rabbi-and-Imman-2014-300x165.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Pope-Francis-with-Rabbi-and-Imman-2014.jpeg 1022w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>A very moving gesture for me, too, was the Holy Father&#8217;s fraternal embrace of the Argentinian Rabbi Abraham Skorka\u00a0and Muslim leader Muslim leader Omar Abboudan\u00a0from Buenos Aires \u2013his longtime friends accompanying him. This is the first such walking with a Pope on a pilgrimage.<\/p>\n<p>Before leaving the Wall, the Grand Rabbi of Israel, David Lau, asked the Pope to sign the <em>Western Wall Book of Honor<\/em>. The dedication begins by citing Psalm 121: &#8220;I rejoiced when they said to me, &#8216;Let us go to the house of the LORD&#8217;. And now our feet are standing within your gates, Jerusalem.\u00a0With these sentiments of joy to my older brothers, I have come now and I asked the Lord for the grace of peace.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>May the Pope&#8217;s prayer be our prayer, too: now and tomorrow. PAX!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Earlier today the Holy Father went to the Western Wall (AKA the &#8220;Wailing Wall&#8221;), where he silently prayed touching the remaining portion of Herod&#8217;s temple. I was profoundly moved by the simple gesture of the Pope; in fact, I was similarly moved in a deep way when Saint John Paul and Pope Benedict visited the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2014\/05\/pope-francis-at-the-western-wall\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Pope Francis at the Western Wall<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84],"tags":[1858,32107],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30829"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30829"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30834,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30829\/revisions\/30834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}