Spirituality Of The Judaean Desert—II: Mar Saba and St John Damascene

Extract

All pilgrims and visitors to Jerusalem include Gethsemane, the valley of the Cedron, and the Mount of Olives in their itinerary. This eastern side of Jerusalem is all ‘holy place', for as St John tells us, our Lord was often there (cf. John xviii, I-2). Very few however linger long enough to trace the course of that occasional torrent-bed or wadi, which starts as the Cedron and continues down towards the Dead Sea as the Wadi en-Nar. But let us suppose that we have done so and skirted the site of Old Testament Jerusalem, past the pool of Siloam (John be) on our right. If we continue down the course of the wadi by what at best would be called a bridle path, twisting and turning, strewn with boulders, we finally plunge down between high cliffs of sombre and sinister rock. We start south, but a sharp bend serves to make the general direction south-east.