Free radio
i24NEWS – AFP
They dip their hands in the water they draw from the Jordan River and use it to bless the congregation, imitating the baptism of Jesus.
Thousands of Catholic Christians attended a special Mass Friday on the banks of the Jordan River as part of an annual pilgrimage to the place where Jesus Christ was baptized.
“This is the first day (of pilgrimage) after the end of the coronavirus pandemic,” said Father Rifat Bader, spokesman for the Catholic Church in Jordan.
The annual event was limited in 2021 to clergy members under strict restrictions to involve the spread of covid. Jordan River.
More than 5,000 people joined this year’s Mass at the Church of the Baptism of Christ, about 30 miles west of the capital Amman. Christians make up six percent of Jordan’s predominantly Muslim population of about 10 million.
Before the rite began, dozens of priests filled pitchers across the river as explorers played music. The priests then dipped their hands in the water they drew from the Jordan River and used it to bless the congregation, imitating the baptism of Jesus.
Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, presided over the Mass.
The site of Wadi al-Kharrar is where biblical historians Jesus was baptized through his cousin, John the Baptist, and began his public ministry. Remains of several churches, baptismal basins and a complicated formula of crisscrossing water, some dating from Roman times. have been discovered on the site.
In 2015, UNESCO added Al-Maghtas to its World Heritage List.
X
Free radio
News
Categories
Legal
Follow