"There's Nothing to See in Nazareth"

The St. George's pilgrimage course made it to Nazareth on Monday, and as the picture attests, the Church of the Annunciation is indeed something to see. The church was built upon the foundations of an earlier church and has been erected so as to allowed pilgrims and archaeologists to view the ruins underneath. It is also the largest church in the Middle East, designed by the seemingly omnipresent Italian architect Antonio Barluzzi. We were afforded a half hour of silence in the church, a communal silence to which we have grown accustomed over this week.

We also visited Mary's Well and Mary's Spring, outside and inside, respectively, the Eastern Orthodox Church of St. Gabriel. The Catholic Church of the Annunciation rests on the the traditional site of Mary's dwelling, were it is said in church tradition that she was at work weaving when the angel appeared to her; the Orthodox Church (pictured below) sits on the site of the local spring, where it is said she was at work drawing water from the well. Either way, these traditions preserve the image of a woman hard at work, a peasant girl among peasants, doing her duty to her family, community, and her God. It is this woman to whom we say 'Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus Christ.'

Clearly, our time in Nazareth would have been better spent taking pretty pictures atop Mount Precipice.