Glimpse of our Pilgrimage so far

As promised, here is a collection of photos from throughout our pilgrimage. Enjoy!

Travel light, they said...

After mass at St. Catherine's in Bethlehem

Conquering Masada

Group at Masada

Peter reads the Scriptures at Ein Gedi

Shaun overlooking Mar Saba

Frassati's got nothing on Fr. Fuller

Dan cantors at Shepherds' Field

Group shot inside Mar Saba Monastery

Lunch at The Tent Restaurant

Jegar's contemplative afternoon in Bethlehem

Smell like the sheep

Trying out Shepherding (not as easy as it looks)

Watching others try shepherding might be more fun...

John Bosco and Fr. Dennis grinding hyssop

Edson and Valery climb Herodian

At the top of Herodian

Verso l'alto!

Chris raising the roof at Tel Arad

Friar Arturo reads at mass at Church of the Visitation

Frs. Fuller, Kasule, and Webb at Church of Visitation

Group at Church of the Visitation in Ein Karem

Lunch at Casa Nova, Franciscan pilgrim house (next to the St. John lodge)

Listening to the account of the Lord's Baptism

Michael ponders baptism

Always check your surroundings, Miguel

Running through the tunnels at Akko

David cantors at St. Peter's in Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee

Chicago seminarians on the Sea of Galilee

Walking to Capernaum

Reflection time on the shore where the Risen Lord made the disciples breakfast

Dr. Nagel speaks about sacrifice in the Old Testament at Tel Dan

Ash Wednesday at the Church of the House of Peter

Kyle takes a goat selfie

Dan reads at St. Anne (birthplace of BVM)

Empty Tomb, Filled with the Spirit: Mass at Jesus' Tomb

“and behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, approached, rolled back the stone, and sat upon it. His clothing was white as snow. The guards were shaken with fear of him and became like dead men. The angel said to the woman in reply, ‘Do not be afraid! I know that you are seeking Jesus the crucified. He is not here, for he has raised just as he said.” (Matthew 2-6)

On this day, the Lord has blessed us by allowing us to partake of the Sacred Eucharist precisely on the altar of the Holy Sepulcher. This is the place where, more than two thousand year ago, Our Lord and savior was buried and the same place where He broke the chains of death and brought us New Life. This has been one of the many wonderful blessings that we have been able to receive during this pilgrimage. To be at the exact place where the history of human existence changed, to be in the place where the Power of God conquered and destroyed all the darkness of sin and death cannot be described. This experience of faith has been a great opportunity for many of us to grow in our faith and in our commitment to follow Christ.

During the Sacred Celebration of the Mass I thought about the many holy places that by the grace of God I have visited, the many places I always wanted to visit and pray at, and the many others I didn’t even know existed. This experience of grace has deepened my faith and caused me to learn new things about it. I also feel called in a new way to go and share with others this great News, that “God loved us that He has sent His only Son so that through Him we can have Eternal Life.” God willing, my classmates and I will soon be able to do so as deacons. As I write these final words, I would like to manifest my appreciation and prayers for those who, in one way or another, have helped to make this pilgrimage possible.

Looking for a Sign

At mass today, we heard in the Gospel and in the homily about "signs."  All too often, we try to anchor our faith in grandiose and revelatory signs from God.  "If I could just get a sign telling me if I should become a priest" or "I would be more faithful going to mass if God would only show how it's making a difference in my life."  Whatever the signs we ask from God, we would do well to realize that those signs are often right in front of our noses. Do you want to see God? Note the sweet loving innocence of a child. Want to know if God is active in your life? Note the many blessings already present in your life. 

God is all around us: in our neighbor, in our family, in the work that we do, and even in that guy at work that always seems to rub us the wrong way.  If we take the time to notice these little signs, and hopefully, it will help us recognize the sign of Jonah, the sign of the Cross that reveals the nature of God: love.

Tour of the Old City

We had the opportunity to take a walking tour of the Old City, which included the Western Wall, Temple Mount, the Upper Room, and the old City of David. It was a long morning of walking and full of information but we learned a lot. We saw many new things like our Jewish brothers and sisters praying at the Western Wall, where we were also able to pray among them, and seeing our Muslim brothers and sisters praying on the Temple Mount (outside the Dome of the Rock).

At the City of David

What struck us the most about the day was being on top of the Temple Mount and realizing that this was where Jesus came and prayed along with many others, offering sacrifice and praise to God. Along one wall of the Temple Mount is the Beautiful Gate where Jews, at the time of Jesus, believed that the Messiah would enter. If you stand where it is believed the Holy of Holies was at the time of the Jewish Temple you would be able to look in one direction through the Beautiful Gate and see the garden of Gethsemane and look the other way and see Calvary. Only God can create imagery that beautiful!

The Holy and Righteous King David, forefather of Christ 

St. Anne and the Pool of Bethesda

Starting a new spiritual journey in the midst of many other journeys, such as the one toward ordination, may look like too much and to be too difficult a challenge, but it remains sweet and idyllic for the soul. This is what we have discovered at the beginning of this Lenten observance as we continue the journey of our pilgrimage.  As each day is a new beginning, Lent is a gift given freely by God for spiritual reactivation- the renewal of our Commitment to belong to none but God alone. How sweet it is to hear these words of reminder in none other than the Church of St. Anne, the birth Place of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a true and perfect disciple and a perfect model for us!

Mass at St. Anne's

We have been to several places on our pilgrimage, each pointing to the historic fact of the story of our faith; and enkindling in us the spiritual fire and love, thus preparing us for both this period and for the moment at which we can say with Mary, “May it be done to me according to Your Will,” and this is what we continue to experience and await for as we embark on our Lenten practices, and as we continue on the remaining part our Pilgrimage.

Class Day

Today, we had two morning classes:  one on the Gospel According to John and the other on the Prophets.  In our class on the Fourth Gospel, we discussed the implications of Christ’s union with us and how faith helps us uncover deeper levels of meaning that are not apparent just on the surface of things.  Christ is our model and enables believers to sharer in His mission by means of the Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts.  We looked specifically at Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well and how He crosses social, political, and religious boundaries in order to reveal to her the dignity that is hers as a beloved daughter of God.

In our class on the Prophets, we learned that Hebrew poetry is marked by the parallelism of different concepts.  We were introduced to several different ways of reading/interpreting passages from Scripture.  We also discussed how themes found in the writings of the prophets first need to be situated in their respective historical and cultural contexts before they are applied to contemporary life and experience.

In the afternoon a Jewish scholar gave us a class on the Jewish Liturgical Year, the Book of Esther, and the upcoming festival of Purim.  In class, we learned that Purim is a joyful celebration commemorating the deliverance of the Jewish people during the Persian exile through Esther and her uncle, Mordecai.  Jews celebrate the festival as “days of drinking and rejoicing” by dressing up in costume, throwing parties, eating special foods and desserts, giving gifts to friends and to the poor.

We’re looking forward to tomorrow’s walking tour of the Old City…and, yes, to Purim next Friday (here in Jerusalem) as well…

Ready, Set, Rewind

        It's a cold, snowy morning and as we load onto the bus, we can't help but notice someone trying to clear a patch of snow with a wooden sign for a shovel! Who would have thought that we would escape Chicago and head to a semi-desert region only to be caught in our hideout by winter.


        Anyway, as we focus more and more on the life of Christ and of the people that he taught, lived with, and loved, we are continually encouraged by our guides to place ourselves in the context of the times that Jesus lived in so that we can gain a deeper understanding of the Sacred Scriptures. What was life like for them? What did their fishing boats look like? How big were their homes?

        Today, we stepped back even farther in time, rewinding all the way back to the Stone Age and the beginning of human activity in the land that Jesus grew up in. In order to do this we visited the Israeli Museum, which took us on a tour of life thousands of years before Jesus' birth all the way up to the rise of Islam in the Middle East. Starting with a female figurine which, estimated to be a quarter of a million years old, is the oldest example of artwork in the world, we soon found ourselves in front of one of the earlier statues of what was considered to be a god (9000 years old). 

        Many of us have wondered at one point or another what Baal looked like as we hear about this god of the Canaanites that so often tempted the Israelites into false worship. Well, now we have a visual image of the culprit and while we might find it amazing that God's chosen people would worship something so seemingly pathetic, we remember in this season of Lent that we are all guilty at times of worshiping slightly more modern gods of our own making (movies, drinks, games etc).

Other highlights included seeing the ossuaries of Joseph, the son of the high priest Caiaphas, seeing an example of how some crucifixions were carried out (the feet were nailed to the sides of the cross) and catching a glimpse of fragments of the oldest copy of a New Testament text (“'I am the Alpha and the Omega,' says the Lord God.”).

 

        In addition to visiting the Israeli Museum, we also had the opportunity to visit the Shrine of the Book, which is the place where the Dead Sea Scrolls (Qumran Scrolls) and the Aleppo codex are kept on display. For those who aren't familiar with the Dead Sea Scrolls, they are an incredibly important discovery in the 1940s of some 981 texts which are valued for their religious and historical significance. Among these texts, which date from the third century BC, we have the complete text of the book of Isaiah, which is by far the earliest record we have of this and other Biblical texts. Not only is this the earliest record, but it also almost perfectly matched newer texts, such as the Aleppo Codex (10th century AD), which is one of the oldest medieval manuscript of the Hebrew Bible. What's the big deal, you still might be wondering. What the Dead Sea Scrolls show us is that the Bible has been accurately transmitted over two thousand years and that God in his providence allowed the same truth from hundreds of years ago to find its way into our hands and hearts.

Snow at Calvary

This morning, we were greeted with a winter wonderland. Trudging through five inches of snow, we made it to the Holy Sepulchre for our 5:30 AM mass at Calvary. Although it was very early and we were all wet from the snow, we all felt a real sense of being blessed to attend mass at Calvary on the first Friday of the Lenten season. 

Snow on a palm tree

Today also marked our first day of new classes. Dr. Nagel began the morning by laying the foundations of the Prophets of the Old Testament. And Fr. Lodge issued our first exam, on the Gospel of John commentary we've been reading during our time in pilgrimage.
Our two classes were done by noon, and following lunch, we had the afternoon free to do as we wished. With snow still slowly accumulating and the occasional rain shower, most of us rested in our rooms or relaxed in the common area. 

After a nice dinner, a small group of us went to the rooftop restaurant, complete with wine and cheese and a spectacular view of the city of Jerusalem. Although it was a chilly and snowy day, I think many of us are realizing just how much Jerusalem has to offer.

Caeserea Philippi

Caesarea Philippi is in the northern “mountainous” region of Galilea. At the time of Jesus it was a pagan religious center where one could find two pagan temples. The first temple, constructed out of the gigantic cliff face rock which dominates the site, was devoted to the Greek god Pan. Next to this temple was another temple devoted to the Roman god, Emperor Caesar Augustus. Next to these great temples devoted to false gods Jesus asked his disciples: “Who do you say that I am?” And it is here that Peter gave his great confession: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

The Second Part of a Holy Adventure:Jerusalem

We have just completed our journey to Jerusalem to begin the second half of our pilgrimage. Our journeys to Nazareth and Galilee had been very rewarding, and we are now filled with joy as we begin to know more the city of Jerusalem. As good pilgrims, most of the seminarians are somewhat tired because we have visited so many places and spent a lot of time walking. However fatigue does not remove the desire to know now the city of Jerusalem in all its great importance to our faith. Here we can find places like the Holy Sepulchre, where the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ took place and so many more. On this day after arriving from Galilee, we could relax a bit and explore the city and its holy places. We are always open and expectative of what God wants to disclose to us. Although the weather has been rainy since our arrival in the city; we are not discouraged as pilgrims, but encouraged to continue to find the meaning of our faith in every piece of the “past” that we find around every corner of this ancient city. We expect to have a better understanding of the biblical places in order to better understand the Word of God and bring God's message to the world…

Ash Wednesday: Making Our Way to Jerusalem

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Lenten season. It is a period of preparation for the Church, now more than ever called to prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. For us, it also marked our arrival into Jerusalem, the same city that saw the passion, death, and resurrection of our Lord.

First, however, we had to say goodbye to Galilee. Our morning began with morning prayer and Mass in Capernaum, a city that witnessed miracles (e.g. curing of Simon Peter's mother-in-law, healing of the paralytic man dropped through the roof).  I couldn't help but think of the different kinds of healing that we all need and offered a prayer.  

Octagonal Church built over St. Peter's House in Capernaum

We went up to Mount Arbel next, which is a scenic overlook of the Sea of Galilee and the city Tiberias.  Along the side of this mount, we could see a valley where Jesus walked through on trips between the Sea of Galilee and Nazareth.  This was our last view of the region of Galilee.  It was truly a beautiful area that experienced much of Jesus' public ministry as well as the hidden years of his life.

Our overlook of the Sea of Galilee

"When the days for his being taken up were fulfilled, he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem." (Lk 9:51) That is how Luke speaks of the beginning of Jesus' journey to Jerusalem.  Our own Lenten journey also begins even if we are already in the city. Whatever crosses we take up, whatever the small sacrifices we undertake, we do so trusting that the Lord will be at our side, beckoning us to find our own Golgothas and a share in his resurrection.