{"id":15984,"date":"2025-10-24T16:47:24","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T22:47:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/on-mount-of-olives-where-jesus-prayed-monks-and-nuns-keep-harvesting-olives\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:35:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:35:40","slug":"on-mount-of-olives-where-jesus-prayed-monks-and-nuns-keep-harvesting-olives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/on-mount-of-olives-where-jesus-prayed-monks-and-nuns-keep-harvesting-olives\/","title":{"rendered":"On Mount of Olives where Jesus prayed, monks and nuns keep harvesting olives"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sister
Sister Marie Benedicte and Sister Colomba, two Catholic nuns, harvest olives in their monastery's garden on the Mount of Olives, in Jerusalem, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025. (Oded Balilty\/The Associated Press)<\/span>Oded Balilty<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

JERUSALEM \u2013 Each October, monks and nuns gather olives at the Mount of Olives and the Gethsemane garden \u2013 where, according to the Gospel, Jesus spent his last night before being taken into Jerusalem to be crucified.<\/p>\n

For two years, the Israel\u2013Hamas war has cast a pall on the Holy Land. Centuries-old olive trees here have periodically shaken during missile attacks targeting Israel.<\/p>\n

But this year\u2019s harvest coincided with a cease-fire agreement, spreading fragile hope for peace \u2013 peace that olive branches have symbolized since the biblical story of the dove that brought one back to Noah\u2019s Ark, signifying the end of the flood.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe land is a gift and the sign of a divine presence,\u201d said the Rev. Diego Dalla Gassa, a Franciscan in charge of the harvest in the hermitage next to Gethsemane. The word Gethsemane is derived from ancient Aramaic and Hebrew words for \u201coil press.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Dalla Gassa and other mostly Catholic congregations on the hill, harvesting olives to make preserves and oil is not a business or even primarily a source of sustenance. Rather, it\u2019s a form of prayer and reverence.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be the custodian of holy sites doesn\u2019t mean only to guard them, but to live them, physically but also spiritually,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s really the holy sites that guard us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Italian
Italian volunteers collect olives they just harvested at the Franciscan hermitage on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, Friday, Oct. 3, 2025. (Oded Balilty\/The Associated Press)<\/span>Oded Balilty<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Harvesting olives by hand on the Mount of Olives<\/div>\n

Early one recent morning, Dalla Gassa traded his habit for a T-shirt and shorts \u2013 albeit with an olive wood cross around his neck \u2013 and headed to the terraces facing Jerusalem\u2019s Old City.<\/p>\n

The bright sun shone off the golden dome of Al-Aqsa Mosque, visible above the walls encircling the Temple Mount \u2013 the holiest site in Judaism \u2013 alongside the bell towers of Christian churches.<\/p>\n

Dalla Gassa and volunteers, ranging from Israeli Jews to visiting Italian law enforcement officers, picked black and green olives by hand and with tiny rakes, dropping them onto nets under the trees.<\/p>\n

Once they filled a wheelbarrow, Dalla Gassa put on ear covers and got the loud, modern press humming. Soon, the fragrance of freshly pressed green oil filled the air. It takes about 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of olives to make one liter (34 ounces) of extra-virgin oil.<\/p>\n

Harvesting as a form of prayer<\/div>\n

Up the hill from the Franciscan convent, Sister Marie Benedicte walked among more olive trees, cradling the adopted kitty she has named \u201cPetit Chat,\u201d French for \u201clittle cat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easy to pray while picking and nature is so beautiful,\u201d she said later while starting her harvest. \u201cIt\u2019s like a retreat time.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more than two decades, the French nun has lived in the Benedictine monastery founded at the end of the 19th century atop the Mount of Olives. Only half a dozen sisters live there now, their day flowing in a 16-hour rhythm of work, contemplative walks in the garden and prayer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very quiet here, very simple,\u201d said Sister Colomba, who is from the Philippines and ensures there\u2019s always enough olive oil in the church lamps to keep them burning by the tabernacle.<\/p>\n

Olive trees are essential in this desert region, where they\u2019ve grown for millennia. For decades, they\u2019ve been at the heart of sometimes-violent land disputes between Palestinians and Jewish settlers in the West Bank. Israel occupied the area in the 1967 war, along with east Jerusalem, where the Mount of Olives is located.<\/p>\n

The congregations on the hill do not have commercial productions, dedicating most of the oil to their own use \u2013 in the kitchen and for sacraments. Many Christians use oil, blessed by clergy during an annual Chrism Mass, for rituals ranging from anointing the sick to blessing the baptized and new altars.<\/p>\n

\"Italian
Italian volunteers work on the olive harvest at the Franciscan hermitage on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, Friday, Oct. 3, 2025. (Oded Balilty\/The Associated Press)<\/span>Oded Balilty<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Only good when pressed: olives and religious symbolism<\/div>\n

For the religious brothers and sisters living among these trees, the harvest is spiritual and full of symbolism.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn picking the olives, we learn how we are picked. We go looking for that last olive \u2013 that\u2019s what God does with us, even those who are a bit hard to reach,\u201d said Dalla Gassa.<\/p>\n

Squeezing a plump green olive between his fingers, he also spoke of the sacrifice that comes with fulfilling one\u2019s vocation of love for God and neighbor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe olive is only good when pressed. It\u2019s the same for us,\u201d said Dalla Gassa.<\/p>\n

Volunteers harvesting this year share in the transcendent experience as much as in the dusty, hot work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe garden is very special. It\u2019s full of spirituality and holiness,\u201d said Ilana Peer-Goldin, who recently helped Dalla Gassa with the harvest. An Israeli raised in Jerusalem, she draws from Jewish, Catholic and Buddhist practices.<\/p>\n

Teresa Penta, from Puglia, Italy \u2013 one of the Mediterranean\u2019s top olive-producing regions \u2013 has spent 13 years in the hermitage next to Gethsemane.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis place has an eternal charm,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The modern olive press has been in place only a few years. She said it added special meaning, returning Gethsemane to its original function.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s harvest has been meager due to drought and fierce spring winds that damaged the blossoms. Still, other congregations have sent their olives to be processed by the monastery of Latrun, about halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n

Latrun\u2019s Trappist monks also have olive trees and vines, though thousands were destroyed by a devastating fire this spring.<\/p>\n

Walking to the olive press outside the abbey church in his black-and-white habit, Brother Athanase said oil and wine production helps the friars earn a living. But the end goal is different for contemplative religious.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo create the empty space while working with repetitive gesture, to be completely available to our Lord, Jesus Christ,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a life to be received completely.\u201d<\/p>\n

AP journalist Melanie Lidman contributed from Tel Aviv, Israel.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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