Day 7 - Beatitudes and Capernaum

The Sea of Galilee from the Mt. of Beatitudes

Wow. Today was packed with goodness and it all surrounded the Sea of Galilee. Where to start? Well, we left Nazareth and traveled to the Mount of Beatitudes.  We had Mass at the site where our Lord preached his most famous sermon. The gardens at this place were beautiful and it was amazing to see such a variety of flowers in January.

Venerating the rock on which Jesus performed the miracle of multiplication

We next went to the site where Jesus multiplied the loaves and the fishes. It was a good reminder to a bunch of future priests that God can do a lot with very little.

Andy gets his feet wet in the Sea of Galilee

Near this Church was another site where Jesus appeared to his apostles on the shore and gave Peter the threefold command to feed the sheep. A depiction of this scene is in our Seminary chapel so it was awesome to be right by the water of the Lake.

Capernaum

Finally, we went to Capernaum which was Jesus' home base during his public ministry.  Many events from the Gospels took place here including the bread of life discourse of John 6. As you can imagine, there was a lot of material for prayer today.

God bless!

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Day 6 - Mt. Tabor

Church of the Transfiguration

We woke up in Nazareth (I'm still getting used saying things like that) and took a short drive to Mount Tabor. This is probably the site where Jesus was transfigured before Peter, James and John (Mt 17). It stands a few miles away from Nazareth and would have been a familiar site to Jesus. Once there we switched into smaller vans that could handle the sharp switchbacks and arrived at the peak.

The site has been a place of Christian prayer since the 300s. We spent some time praying in the ruins of a crusader era church before entering the massive basilica built in 1924. Today our group celebrated the Epiphany of Jesus to the three wise men. In the both Transfiguration and the Epiphany Jesus reveals himself, and he did so again during the Holy Mass celebrated by Fr. Kuss in the basilica's mosaic-lined crypt.

Beau soaking up the sun on Mt. Tabor

Tyler amidst the ancient ruins

Like the apostles we descended from Tabor and moved on. We ended our day with a tour of Zippori, an ancient Roman city under excavation. We could see Nazareth on the nearby hillsides. Many have hypothesized that Jesus and Joseph found work in this wealthy city before returning at the end of the day to Nazareth, which is exactly what we did.

God bless!

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Day 5 - Nazareth and Cana

The view of Nazareth

We left Haifa and drove a short distance to the city of Nazareth. At the time of Jesus, It would have been the home of around 200 people; now it is home to 100,000 (and the largest population of non-jews in the country of Israel).

The Word becoming flesh where the Word became flesh

We were privileged to have Mass in the Basilica of the Annunciation.  We prayed at the sight of Mary's home, the place where the Word became flesh.  We also were able to pray at the site believed to be either Joseph's workshop or the home where the Holy Family lived. We prayed for our own families and dioceses.

From Nazareth we made the short journey to Cana where our Lord performed his first miracle.  We thought it would be fun to buy some wine in Cana, but I guess we weren't the first pilgrims with that idea because every tourist shop in the town sold wine.

It was an amazing day. Many of us prayed a holy hour just a few feet from the Annunciation site. I hope that we can make the Word that became flesh  known and loved, God willing, in our future ministry as priests.

At the end of the night some of us enjoyed some fellowship overlooking the night lights of Nazareth. We are looking forward to Mt. Tabor tomorrow.

God bless!

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Day 4 - Carmel and Akko

A mosque in old city Akko

We're settled in for the night after our busiest day yet! We had a quiet morning in the monastery on Mount Carmel. Breakfast, holy hour and mass before hitting the road at 10 am. We drove across the bay to the ancient Capitol of the crusaders, Akko. We toured an excavated fortress of the Hospitalers, an order that founded hospitals (go figure) which included the crypt of a Church, a giant dinning hall, and secret tunnels.

We grabbed some lunch and walked to the city's famous port, snaking our way through the Grand Bazaar. It was full of vendors, spices, and too much raw fish.

Capturing the moment!

The view across the Valley of Armageddon

After Akko, we bussed to another peak in the Carmel  Mountain range. Muhraqa is the traditional location for the epic duel between the prophet Elijah and the 450 pagan prophets of Baal. (If you want to know who won read 1kings 18.) From the windy peak we could see for miles. Over looking the famous valley of Armageddon we got our first distant look at the mount of the Transfiguration and Nazareth.

Ryan Andrew posing with Elijah

These first few days following Peter and Elijah have been wonderful, but we're all looking toward Nazareth tomorrow with excitement, ready to walk in the footsteps of Jesus.

God bless!

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Day 3 - Caesarea Maritima and Stella Maris

We left Tel Aviv this morning and drove up the coast of the Mediterranean Sea to the ancient city of Caesarea, built by Herod the Great shortly before the birth of Christ. The ancient city is now in ruins. Caesarea was the location of the first baptism of a gentile. St. Peter baptised Cornelius the centurion (Acts 10). It was raining with a strong wind throughout this tour, and once the tour was over and we were all sufficiently soaked, the sky cleared and it was sunny (go figure!).

The view from Stella Maris

Seminarians enjoying the view

The afternoon brought us a little further north to Haifa and Mt. Carmel. We are spending the next two nights at Stella Maris, a Carmelite monastery. We were able to see several caves in the side of the mountain, caves that the Prophet Elijah might have lived in when he spent his time on Mt. Carmel (one of these caves is venerated in the Carmelite church pictured below). It is awesome to know that we are praying in the same area that this great prophet prayed.

Stella Maris means Star of the Sea. A name the Church gives to Mary who guides us to Jesus. Please pray that she might continue to do so for us on this trip.

God bless!

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Day 2 - Jaffa

The beautiful city of Tel Aviv

Enjoying some prayer before Mass

The group woke up this morning, slightly less jet-lagged now, and ate breakfast looking out on the Mediterranean Ocean! With the wind storm last night most of us didn't even know how close to the coast we were, but we are right on the shore in Israel's major port city.

Our bus took us to St. Peter's for mass. St Peter stayed in Jaffa at a  tanner's house (Acts 10) and it is here that he received a vision of God which led him to baptize the first pagans into the Church. In a way it is so fitting that we should start our pilgrimage in Jaffa, the port where so many Christians before us landed and the place where God called us all to follow Jesus.

After touring the city we walked back along the beach where a few of us discovered Israel's national sport, Matka. We'll teach you when we get back.

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Day 1 - Travel and Tel Aviv.

Holy Day Mass at the Hotel before bed

Greetings from the Holy Land!

We left Minneapolis at 5:20pm on the 31st and landed in Tel Aviv at 5:15pm on New Year's Day (Including a connecting flight in Paris). 

It was a long day of traveling but the Lord blessed us through it all.  When we landed in Israel, the sun was setting, introducing the start of our first Sabbath in Israel.  At our first dinner at the hotel, our conversation was blended with the singing of the Jewish families' Shabbat prayers.

Our day ended with Mass for the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. And what a better way to end our first day!

God bless!

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