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Flight to Egypt

E-BookEPUBePub WasserzeichenE-Book
424 Seiten
Englisch
Books on Demanderschienen am03.01.20231. Auflage
The Holy Family take refuge from Herod in the land of Egypt

Stephanie Meier lived in England until she was 23 years old. After moving to Switzerland, she took up various professions before becoming a deacon of the Old Catholic Church at the age of 50. Upon her retirement, she discovered a passion for writing.mehr
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TaschenbuchKartoniert, Paperback
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E-BookEPUBePub WasserzeichenE-Book
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Produkt

KlappentextThe Holy Family take refuge from Herod in the land of Egypt

Stephanie Meier lived in England until she was 23 years old. After moving to Switzerland, she took up various professions before becoming a deacon of the Old Catholic Church at the age of 50. Upon her retirement, she discovered a passion for writing.
Details
Weitere ISBN/GTIN9783756282807
ProduktartE-Book
EinbandartE-Book
FormatEPUB
Format HinweisePub Wasserzeichen
Erscheinungsjahr2023
Erscheinungsdatum03.01.2023
Auflage1. Auflage
Seiten424 Seiten
SpracheEnglisch
Artikel-Nr.10685695
Rubriken
Genre9200

Inhalt/Kritik

Leseprobe

2

Even the little village of Bethany was teeming with people when Mariam and Jossef set off to visit Sara and Shimon after lunch the next day. They had both slept well in Mariam s aunt s house. Mariam was feeling fit again, and ready to meet the day.

Sarah embraced her friend Mariam, then turned to face Jossef, who introduced himself to her and her husband. Shimon greeted Jossef with a broad smile. The friends went into the house, where there were now three children playing!

«Ah!» commented Mariam, «this must be your youngest daughter! What s her name?»

«Her name s Mariam, we named her after you!» answered Sarah brightly. «She s a clever lass, just like you!»

Mariam beamed with pleasure and went over to the children.

«Martha, I swear you ve grown in the half year since I was last here! You too, Elazar! And Mariam looks a healthy little girl.»

Martha picked up her sister and hugged her just like a little mother. She passed the tiny baby over to Mariam, who took her in her arms in wonder.

«My child will soon be born,» said Mariam.

«Yes I thought as much, since your belly s pretty large! What a time to have to travel!» commented Sarah.

«You can say that again!» answered Mariam. «Well, that s what comes of Jossef s being of the House of David!»

Little Mariam loudly demanded a feed, so Sarah relieved her friend of her daughter and sat down to nurse her. Mariam and Jossef soaked up the comfortable family atmosphere and enjoyed their day with these good friends. By the time they returned to Elisheva s house, Jossef already felt he had known Sarah and Shimon for a long time.

A second night with Elisheva and Zechariah and the peaceful atmosphere of the Sabbath gave Mariam and Jossef plenty of time to recover, so that they felt refreshed and ready for the walk to Bethlehem, where they hoped to arrive towards evening. At break of day, they said the morning prayer after ritually washing. This they would do religiously every day, no matter how little time or water was available to them. Then they packed up and left with Zechariah, leading their two donkeys behind them. Zechariah took his leave of the couple at the temple gate, wished them all the best for their journey home and blessed them.

Mariam and Jossef descended from the temple mount, taking the road to Hebron. They were amazed at the number of people on the road there. Even at Bethany, there had been a great many travellers, but shortly after Jerusalem the crowds became quite overwhelming. The noise had also increased, giving Mariam a headache. She had been unpleasantly jostled several times, so she decided to ride her donkey again to give her protection. They took a short break at the roadside for her to mount, during which Jossef gave his wife a drink from the water skin. Then they set off again, going with the flow of the crowd.

It was not far to Rachel s Tomb1, where they paid their respects along with all the other pilgrims. Near the tomb, an old man was selling fresh figs. Jossef bought a few figs to augment their supplies and chatted to the fig seller.

«Must be good for business, these crowds!» remarked Jossef.

«Oh they are!» answered the man. «It s wonderful for sales! But this isn t a good time for you to be travelling on these crowded roads, with your wife expecting.»

«You re right!» said Josef. «Mind you, we didn t come far today, only from Bethany, and we re only going as far as Bethlehem. But with all this noise and jostling, it s very taxing for my wife.»

«Know what? After the tomb, you could take the next turning on the left,» advised the old man, pointing in that direction. «As you can see, no one s turning off there. It s a longer route - you ll come out near Beit Sahour at the edge of the desert - but it s quieter! After that, you ll need to take the next right turning. You ll soon reach Bethlehem beyond the hamlet of Beit Sahour. Also, you ll arrive at the town directly in the vicinity of the only guesthouse.»

«Oh, thank you very much!» exclaimed Jossef, «that s valuable advice!»

Jossef went back to Mariam and asked her whether she was happy to take the longer path. She was all in favour of the old man s idea. She turned to him, putting her hand on her heart and bowing her head in a gesture of thanks.

As they departed, they both waved to the old fig seller, then the donkeys took the slight incline at a trot. They found the left turnoff where the path evened out behind the tomb. After this, the path followed the outline of the hill, descending gently towards the east. Far ahead of them, a group of shepherds were walking along the same path with their flock of sheep and goats; otherwise, there was no one on this path. After about half an hour, the shepherds arrived at their field. The sheep and goats dispersed and began to graze the sparse, stony ground. The shepherds waved and called a friendly greeting to Mariam and Jossef, who stopped to chat with them at the edge of the field, telling them they had just come from Jerusalem and wished to continue to Bethlehem. The shepherds explained exactly where they would find the turnoff for Beit Sahour, and Mariam and Jossef walked on. In Beit Sahour, a small hamlet, they filled their water skins at a well and continued to Bethlehem.

This route had indeed been much less demanding, even though it was further. Nevertheless, Mariam was extremely glad to see the first houses of the town appearing on the horizon. There was still an hour to go until sunset. It was quiet on the outskirts of the town, but even from there, they could hear the noise emanating from the town centre. A man trundled by with an old handcart, empty but for a few leftover cabbage leaves - obviously it had been market day, which no doubt explained the crowds. They only needed to follow the noise to find the guesthouse. However, when they arrived, they saw people coming out, looking disappointed.

«Not very promising!» said Mariam. «But let s give it a try anyway. I really can t go much further!»

They entered the guesthouse, where the landlord gave them a sour look.

«Sorry! No room!» he bellowed over the heads of the guests and those who had been rejected.

So out they went again and stood in the street, completely at a loss.

«What do we do now?» asked Mariam.

Jossef frowned. He had no idea. They retraced their steps a short way towards the south, just to get away from the noise. Bethlehem was only a small town and only had this one guesthouse, as they well knew.

Whilst they stood there looking about them, Mariam s waters suddenly broke!

«Oh, Jossef!» she shouted in desperation, «It s starting! Our baby s coming!»

Jossef s eyes widened in horror; he acted fast, hammering on the door of the nearest house, but there was no answer. He tried the next house - no answer there, either! Desperately, he knocked on all the doors, until finally a young man responded.

«My wife s having a baby!» shouted Jossef. The young man s eyes widened, his mouth gaped and he disappeared inside the house again. However, he had left the door ajar, which gave them some hope. A middle-aged woman came to the door with a puzzled expression.

«My son tells me your wife s having a baby, is that right?» she asked Jossef.

«Yes! Oh, please, help us! Have you got room for us somewhere where she can give birth?»

«I can only offer you the stable. I ll spread some fresh straw in there so that the poor woman can give birth on it.»

Jossef was in despair, because he could feel his wife s desperation, but there was no time to search for a better option.

«Right, in that case please show us the way,» sighed Jossef, «oh, and thank you very much, it s most kind!» he added.

Luckily, the stable was directly behind the house. Jossef supported Mariam who was panting and swaying slightly, whilst the owner brushed the floor clean and spread fresh straw, introducing herself as Tabitha while she did so. The stable had a homely smell of straw and dung. With Jossef s help, Mariam lowered herself onto the straw and moaned in anguish.

«I m off to fetch a midwife!» said Tabitha. «You re doing fine! Breathe deeply, that s it!»

Jossef held Mariam s hand and wiped the sweat from her brow.

«Oh my, why did it have to happen right here!» groaned Mariam through clenched teeth.

«Mariam, please tell me what to do,» begged Jossef.

«Yes, Jossef, go to the house and ask for water and cloths, then please go and find Salome!» ordered Mariam. Jossef went off, grateful to have something useful to do.

Mariam was shaken by a first contraction. Luckily she had been present when Elisheva had given birth and knew exactly what to do. Soon, the labour pains were coming in shorter intervals. Mariam knew the child was coming. She supported herself on a hay bale and pressed with all her might.

Jossef returned with the water bowl and the cloths just as Tabitha arrived with the midwife, so he left again to search for Salome.

«You re doing...
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