The Adventure Begins

It was an early, dark, and cold morning at Mundelein Seminary as we gathered at the bus, ready to begin our pilgrimage.  At first glance that description sounds inconvenient, but adventures often are, a fact that J.R.R. Tolkien so masterfully illustrated in his book The Hobbit.  And yet, for all their inconveniences, adventures are always worth having.

On our way to the airport

Thankfully the start of our pilgrimage brought with it very few other inconveniences: smooth passage through security, our flights were on time and, at the time of this writing, we are comfortably on our flight to Tel Aviv.  By the time you read this we will have landed and hopefully have had the opportunity to settle into the beginning of this adventure on which we find ourselves embarking.

Over the last several days the seminary community, our family and friends, and many others made it clear that they would be praying for us, asking God to accompany us and care for us during this time of pilgrimage.  Along with the prayers of those who love us, the Lord has made His Presence known in many other ways already, most notably the chance that some of us had to pray before Him in a tabernacle at Newark’s Liberty airport.

When our plane lands we will begin taking in the sights, sounds and smells of the Holy Land- with the knowledge that God is already journeying with us, beginning an interior work in each of us that we can only patiently wait on right now.

And in the words of Tolkien’s wizard, Gandalf: “Surely that is a comforting thought.”