<\/p>\n
Editor\u2019s Note:\u00a0Previously published on Religion News Service on October 24, 2025.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n JERUSALEM (AP) \u2014 Come October, monks and nuns are busy harvesting olives at the Mount of Olives\u00a0and the Gethsemane garden \u2014 where, according to the Gospel, Jesus spent the last night before being taken up the other side of the valley into Jerusalem to be crucified.<\/p>\n For two years, the\u00a0Israel-Hamas war\u00a0has cast a pall on the Holy Land. The hundreds of centuries-old olive trees here have shaken periodically in\u00a0missile attacks\u00a0targeting Israel.<\/p>\n But this year\u2019s harvest happened as a\u00a0ceasefire agreement\u00a0was reached, spreading a tenuous hope for peace \u2014 peace that olive branches have symbolized since the biblical story of the dove that brought one back to Noah\u2019s Ark to signify 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 the ancient Aramaic\u2019s and Hebrew\u2019s \u201coil press.\u201d<\/p>\n For Dalla Gassa and the 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 for their communities. 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 Harvesting olives by hand on the Mount of Olives<\/strong><\/p>\n Early on a recent morning, Dalla Gassa traded his habit for a T-shirt and shorts \u2014 albeit with an olive wood cross around his neck \u2014 and headed to the terraces facing Jerusalem\u2019s Old City.<\/p>\n The bright sun shone off the golden dome of\u00a0Al-Aqsa Mosque, visible above the walls encircling the Temple Mount \u2014 the holiest site in Judaism \u2014 alongside the bell towers of Christian churches.<\/p>\n Dalla Gassa and some volunteers, ranging from Israeli Jews to visiting Italian law enforcement officers, picked the 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 up to 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of olives to make one liter (34 ounces) of extra-virgin oil.<\/p>\n Harvesting as a form of prayer<\/strong><\/p>\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 little cat in French.<\/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 been 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 is in charge of ensuring there\u2019s always enough olive oil in the church lamps to keep them burning by the tabernacle.<\/p>\n Olive trees are an essential crop in this desert region where they\u2019ve grown for millennia. For decades they\u2019ve been at the heart of\u00a0sometimes-violent land disputes\u00a0between Palestinians and some Jewish settlers in the West Bank. Israel occupied it in the\u00a01967 war\u00a0along with east Jerusalem, where the Mount of Olives is.<\/p>\n The congregations on the hill do not have commercial productions, dedicating the vast majority of the oil to their own use, both 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 \u201cOnly good when pressed\u201d: Olives and religious symbolism<\/strong><\/p>\n For the religious brothers and sisters living among these trees, the harvest itself 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 \u2014 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 The volunteers who\u2019ve been harvesting this year share in the transcendent experience as much as in the dusty, hot working days.<\/p>\n \u201cThe garden is very special. It\u2019s full of spirituality and holiness,\u201d said Ilana Peer-Goldin, who on a recent morning was helping Dalla Gassa with the harvest. An Israeli raised in Jerusalem, she draws from Jewish, Catholic and Buddhist practices.<\/p>\n Teresa Penta, who is from Puglia, Italy \u2014 one of\u00a0the Mediterranean area\u2019s top olive-producing regions\u00a0\u2014 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 because of drought and fierce springtime winds that damaged the blossoms. Still, other congregations have been sending 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 of them were destroyed by a\u00a0devastating fire this spring.<\/p>\n Walking to the olive press outside the abbey church in his black-and-white habit, Brother Athanase said the oil and wine production helps the friars\u00a0earn their living. But the end goal is different for the 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 ___\u00a0AP journalist Melanie Lidman contributed from Tel Aviv, Israel.<\/p>\n ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP\u2019s\u00a0collaboration\u00a0with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" JERUSALEM (AP) \u2014 This year\u2019s harvest happened as a ceasefire agreement was reached, spreading a tenuous hope for peace \u2014 peace that olive branches have symbolized since the biblical story of the dove that brought one back to Noah\u2019s Ark to signify the end of the flood. Editor\u2019s Note:\u00a0Previously published on Religion News Service on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[870,481,868,865,869,866,867],"class_list":{"0":"post-9141","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-christian-living","8":"tag-harvesting","9":"tag-jesus","10":"tag-monks","11":"tag-mount","12":"tag-nuns","13":"tag-olives","14":"tag-prayed"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}