Daily Meditation: Monday, December 15, 2025

Holy sites - the spirit has long since departed from them

12/15/2025

The world is full of vestiges from which the spirit has long since departed. Christians make pilgrimages to Palestine, to the places where Jesus was born, preached, and worked his miracles. But even if a few stones from his time still remain, the spirit of Jesus is no longer there. Over the centuries, too many people have passed through these sites, carrying with them their mundane preoccupations, their impure and unenlightened thoughts and feelings. You will point out that since the Middle Ages, the Christian churches have made every effort to protect these holy places. Yes, by waging war against the ‘infidels’, by slaughtering and plundering. A strange way indeed to preserve the traces of Jesus’ presence! If we want to preserve the imprint left by great spiritual beings, we must respect the sites where they are found. But it is not enough merely to have a polite outward attitude, to refrain from shouting, laughing and fooling around. Our inner attitude, the thoughts and feelings we bring with us, are equally important, for it is principally these that leave their mark. The soil of Palestine has been trampled by too many people who were not animated by Christ-like virtues, and the spirit of Jesus has departed.*