Healed in Capernaum and Nearby
Thrown out of Nazareth, he makes his base Capernaum, healing his mother in law (usually a good thing to do) of a fever. At 31 degrees today I'm not surprised about the fever. But then into the synagogue for a possessed woman, and in a house where friends let their friend in through the roof. There was even leprosy around in those days - healed!
Wandering round the synagogue ruins i find I'm in conversation with a cancer survivor who asked the perennial question: why? I share my own experience of 'living in the kingdom of the sick', which nowadays is the world of dementia and how I survive (more or less). It's not the miracles of 2000 years ago, but something happens as we share.
And in nearby Magdala the synagogue has a sophisticated bath for ritual cleansing - another kind of healing, and then a chapel commemorating Mary of Magdala and other women. 'She only touched the hem of his garment.' and was healed. I come away with a postcard. André writes his mother's name as a 'significant' woman. She is.
But when we pass through a kibbutz and come to the lake itself I found our enterprising son has stolen my swimming trunks so he has the swim and not me. But the boat ride on a calm late afternoon lake proves therapeutic enough for me, and fun. I'm restored in the cool of the late afternoon with swallows diving around us.
But peak hour traffic turns a short distance into a long journey - crowds of another kind could sap the energy away. But relax!
Wandering round the synagogue ruins i find I'm in conversation with a cancer survivor who asked the perennial question: why? I share my own experience of 'living in the kingdom of the sick', which nowadays is the world of dementia and how I survive (more or less). It's not the miracles of 2000 years ago, but something happens as we share.
And in nearby Magdala the synagogue has a sophisticated bath for ritual cleansing - another kind of healing, and then a chapel commemorating Mary of Magdala and other women. 'She only touched the hem of his garment.' and was healed. I come away with a postcard. André writes his mother's name as a 'significant' woman. She is.
But when we pass through a kibbutz and come to the lake itself I found our enterprising son has stolen my swimming trunks so he has the swim and not me. But the boat ride on a calm late afternoon lake proves therapeutic enough for me, and fun. I'm restored in the cool of the late afternoon with swallows diving around us.
But peak hour traffic turns a short distance into a long journey - crowds of another kind could sap the energy away. But relax!
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