We have arrived. . .

On the door to St. Catherine of Alexandria Church, the parish church in Bethlehem, there is a sign that reads, "We are hoping that: If you enter a tourist, you will exit as a pilgrim. If you enter here as a pilgrim, you would exit as a holier one."

Together we have walked the journey of a pilgrim and have grown to know the Lord in ways that were unimaginable to us. We have walked the road to Emmaus and have met the Lord and our eyes were opened.

Thank you for accompanying us on this pilgrimage through the blog. Thanks for your prayerful support and while we were far away from our family and friends we remained close to you through prayer and love for the Lord.

Our Journey Home Begins!

copyright Ork Posters

We have reached our final day in the holy land. We celebrated Mass a bit later in the morning than we usually do since we have concluded our class days for the trip. Our bags are packed and we have begun the process of saying goodbye to Israel. Many of us are looking forward to coming back to the United States for various reasons, but this last day has been an opportunity to reflect on our experiences of the pilgrimage and give thanks for the many graces that we have received.

Most of us spent this day packing and doing some last minute site visits. Our flight leaves late in the evening so we had much of the day to ourselves. We have had great experiences on this trip, great classes, great tour guides and experiences that have drawn us together as a group. This pilgrimage has been a great time to learn things about ourselves and draw closer to the Lord. It has been a once and a lifetime opportunity to be able to come and spend this much time in the holy land. I am sure that we will all remember this pilgrimage for the rest of our lives.

Reflecting with St. Joseph

It has been a beautiful gift to have had quiet time to reflect on our pilgrimage. And it is all the more beautiful that we had the opportunity to reflect on our pilgrimage on the Solemnity of St. Joseph with Mass at Dormition Abbey! Dormition Abbey was built on the place where Mary, after her time was spent on earth, fell to sleep and was taken into heaven body and soul!



I've always had a great devotion to St. Joseph! Probably because he gives me hope in my future priestly vocation. St. Joseph, just like us in his brokenness and human weakness, was asked to protect and guide Mary, the one Immaculately conceived, and Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Savior of the World; talk about a big task! St. Joseph, out of the entire Holy Family, seems to be the least equipped for the task given to him. Yet he receives his task, probably fearfully, but nonetheless he serves in the task faithfully always responding to the Lord's request of him. How true is it for us discerning a call to the priesthood. Many of us, like Joseph are broken and seem least fit to lead the Bride of Christ. Yet the Lord continues to extend His call to the priesthood even to those who seem unequipped and powerless. Please continu
e to pray for us as we try to answer the call of the Lord with faithfulness like St. Joseph did!

At the Edge of the End

Today we had our last day of classes in the Holy Land, which brought lessons in Ezekiel and on the passion narrative of John.  From Ezekiel we saw his deeply purposeful use of prophetic signs in order to display the way of the Lord to people blind to His word. From John, we gained an insight into Jesus’ passion, the heart of our faith, and the center of our lives. We received insight into His Light versus the light provided by the world, and that His Light had power even amidst seeming powerlessness.  Both were valuable lessons for us as we continue toward priestly ordination!

Following classes we began to wrap up our trip.  Some wandered the city making new discoveries, others returned to old favorites, and others to quieter things.  Tonight we entered into a period of silence and prayer, a period of reflection and thanksgiving.  The plan for our reflection is once again to recall all that the Lord has done for us on this trip through the places we have visited, the topics we were able to study.  Please continue to pray for us as we wrap up our pilgrimage!

“Lord, Teach Us How to Pray..."

View of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives

Today we found ourselves on top of the Mount of Olives, ultimately following the path of Jesus in the days leading up to Holy Week.  We began at the church in Bethphage, not far from the town where Lazarus, Martha and Mary lived.  It was here that Jesus mounted the colt that would take Him through the Beautiful Gate into the City of Jerusalem and the drama of the Passion.  It was a beautiful morning and, near the peak of the Mount of Olives, we could see much of the surrounding countryside, truly a beautiful site to behold!

From there we proceeded down to the Pater Noster church, the site where Christ taught His disciples to pray the Our Father.  Attached to a French Carmelite convent, the church is designed to reflect the great gift Christ gave us in the Our Father: we are called to be true children of God and, by this, truly brothers and sisters.  The universal nature of this gift is reflected in the Our Father being written in 168 languages throughout the church.  We were all able to wander through the church and find the various translations that reflected our own cultures and backgrounds before gathering once more and traveling even further down the Mount of Olives.

Group picture after Mass at Dominus Flevit

As we entered the courtyard of the next church the Old City of Jerusalem came into full view, bathed in the morning sunlight.  It was fitting, then, that the church we found ourselves at is called Dominus Flevit, the site where Jesus wept over the future destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans.  It was here that we had Mass as a community.  Having just visited the Pater Noster church, it was beautiful to reflect on the reality that we are all sons and daughters of God, and so the Lord is overwhelmed by His love and desire for us to be in relationship with Him and to be holy that He would weep over us as He did over Jerusalem.  With this is our call to live as sons and daughters of God, to be servants of peace and holiness, leading others to the Father’s love.

After a brief stop at the bottom of the Mount of Olives to see the Garden of Gethsemane once more, we returned to where we’re staying for a celebration of our time here together along with the March birthdays and the feasts of St. Joseph and St. Patrick.  It was a great chance for fraternity and fun as we come to the middle of our last week here.  Know of our continued prayers for you all as we travel through these last few days and prepare to return home!

A Day at the Sea

Hey Everyone!

We hope and pray all of you are doing well!  Today was our last major day to travel out of Jerusalem to see sites since our pilgrimage is coming to an end soon.  Today we went to the city of Jaffa. It is a city close to Tel Aviv and has some neat connections to biblical history. We began the day by visiting the tomb of St. George.  The tomb is located underneath a Greek Orthodox Church. We arrived at the church and were told about the story of St. George by our guide and then proceeded down to his tomb. It was nice to be able to spend a few minutes in prayer with him.

            The next stop on our trip was the Church of St. Peter for Sunday Mass. It was a beautiful Mass and a great way to celebrate the 4th Sunday of Lent. The ambo in the church actually is meant to look like a fruit tree.  It was explained to us that it was meant to look like a fruit tree since the Word of God should be fruitful and produce fruit in our lives. Following the Mass our tour guide took us on a tour of the old city of Jaffa. We saw Simon the Tanner’s house, where St. Peter stayed, and also went down to the Port of Jaffa, right on the Mediterranean Sea. This port is special since it is the port that the cedar wood from Lebanon came through on its way to build the Temple under Solomon. The reason this port was used was it was considered the closest port to Jerusalem.  This also was the port that St. Peter sailed out of to go to Rome. A lot of neat history in this city! 

After visiting the port we went and had a nice lunch at a restaurant off the Mediterranean coast. It was a great meal and we had time to go down to the beach for a few minutes afterwards to enjoy the water. Overall it was a good pilgrimage day. This coming week we will be wrapping everything up as we prepare to come back to the seminary. Please keep us in your prayers as we keep you in ours!    

Class Day

Today we started the day of, as we usually do, with Morning Prayer and Mass. After breakfast, we continued with our classes in Prophets and Johannine Literature. For Prophets, we studied the laments of Jeremiah, and we came to know the suffering role of the true prophet who speaks out against the austerities and injustice of society. In Johannine Literature, the Last Supper Discourses were the subject of our reflections. Hearing the message and exhortation of Jesus to the disciples in the face of his passion struck at our hearts: “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make out dwelling with him” (Jn 14:23).

After classes and lunch, we were given the great opportunity to visit the Shalom Hartman Institute for our class lecture on Judaism. We took the opportunity to see a Torah scroll and sit in a Beth Midrash, a Jewish house of learning. Our lecturer gladly answered our questions about the role and importance of the Rabbi in Judaism, which were numerous, and we had the chance to study with a chavruta, a learning partner. So, we paired up in groups of two and began to study the role of sacrifice in Judaism. The room quickly filled with the voices of thirty plus seminarians reading and interpreting texts. And, as you can imagine, it became pretty loud! Well, it definitely was an eye-opening exercise in an alternative method of study.

As we finish up these last days of our pilgrimage, be assured of our continual prayers and please keep us in our prayers as well. For our friends and family, we will see you soon!