The Ladder: A Metaphor for The Church
I took this photo outside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem . The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is the most famous Christian site in all of the city. It is said to be built over the sites where Jesus was crucified, and buried. In the years 326-328 Empress Helena , the mother of Constantine, the first Christian Roman Emperor, was given unlimited resources by her son to locate all of the Holy Relics and sites related to Jesus life, ministry, death, burial and resurrection. According to Bishop Macarius of Jerusalem , the site of the true cross of Jesus was discovered when the remains of the cross healed a woman who was near death. It seems that Helena arranged for the woman to be brought to the site in order to "test" whether it was really the cross of Jesus. After this miracle, Constantine ordered a church to be built on the spot where it was discovered. The original church was destroyed by the Persians in the 5th century, rebuilt in the Byza...