A little Jerusalem, right here in our neighborhood

We are currently renting the first floor of a house in the Brookland neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Because we are only a few blocks from The Catholic University of America and many other Catholic institutions, the neighborhood is also known as "Little Rome." Our neighborhood is also home to a Franciscan monastery, which is only a few blocks from our house. It is designed to be a re-creation of Jerusalem. In fact, its full name is the Franciscan Monestary of the Holy Land in America.

Similar to Epcot, the monastery grounds are a re-creation of many of the famous buildings and sites in Jerusalem (and a few other places). In general, it is a beautiful place to visit because the gardens are immaculate and peaceful.

The rose garden is well-known in D.C., and they have an annual garden sale every year.

It is a quiet retreat in the middle of the city. But it's an especially fun place to visit because we have been to Jerusalem and have seen many of the sites that they re-create. Only it's kind of odd to see them in a quiet and peaceful setting and modern iterations of them. Jerusalem's Old City, where most of these sites are, is a crazy place to visit. It truly shows its 2,000-plus year age. (Many parts of Jerusalem are clean and modern, but stepping into the Old City is like visiting a Third World country.) The Old City is old and dusty and dirty, with many narrow streets and alleys at various levels. You're always going up and down and climbing uneven steps and walking over dirty and unven pavement and through sometimes smelly, bustling, crowded and noisy market areas. Or you're being shouted at by the owner of a store who wants you to come inside and browse. Or it's a certain time of day for prayer for one religious group or sect, and funny-costumed people are rushing past you to get to the synagogue or the mosque. Plus all of these buildings are extremely old and crumbling and are dark and smoky inside. Regardless, it's a fascinating, wonderful, deeply meaningful place to visit, since it's where Jesus himself trod. But to visit these re-created buildings in Washington, D.C., that are modern, all fixed up, restored, bright and clean is almost amusing.

Yikes! If you've ever seen the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in person in the heart of Jerusalem's Old City, you might not recognize this stand-alone, cleaned-up, restored version of it in America.

The gardens of the monastery are a wonderful place to visit. In the garden is a re-creation of the tomb where Jesus was buried (a place you can visit just outside Jerusalem's Old City). The fake stone kind of ruins the atmosphere of the place, however.

There are beautiful flowers and plants everywhere at the monastery. These are outside the pavilion like the one that's built over the spot where Jesus ascended into heaven on the ridge of the Mount of Olives. I visited the original site of the Ascension early one morning in Jerusalem, and I tell ya, the neighborhood around this pavilion wasn't as beautiful and flowery as the one in Washington, D.C., is!