Land outside Jerusalem

The first half of the Holy Land journey was around the Sea of Galilee.  It included the towns of Nazareth and Capernaum with the Holy sites surrounding them.







Inside the Church of the Annunciation



Enter to Joseph's Workshop



 Nazareth hosts the church of the Annunciation where it is built over the spot they say Mary lived.  The church is very modern and contains images of Mary donated by many countries.  Unfortunately, the image by the United States was not my favorite.  Next door is a small church dedicated to the workshop of St. Joseph.  In all of Israel it is the only church dedicated to St. Joseph.  That was a great surprise.  Here I prayed for all of our Glenmary Brothers who celebrate in a special way, St. Joseph the Worker.  I also prayed for the protectors of children in any capacity.







Remains of House of St. Peter in Capernaum



The next day I had the privileged to celebrate Mass at Capernaum in the church of St. Peter built above the home of his mother-in-law.  The archaeological evidence is pretty clear that this is the house and here Jesus lived for about three years.  This alone is enough to give one goosebumps.  Yet, I take great courage from Peter as a Christian.  He was very passionate.  Sometimes he was humble, honest, and contrite.  Other times he was boastful and bold.  Yet he failed the moment of his biggest test when he denied our Lord.  Our Lord forgave him and he became our first Pope and martyred here in Rome.  So us bumbling souls in pursuit of Christ should not abandon hope when we fail our Lord by falling in sin or being inconsistent in our practice.  Like Peter the Lord is redeeming us every day and will bring us to eternal life.

One of the highlights of my time in this area was the visit to Mt. Tabor.  In my backpack I carried the names of the parishioners of St. John and Elizabeth Catholic Church, Grayson, KY, the Glenmary directory with the names of all our students, members, co-workers and employees.  I also carried the list of all the people I promised to pray for in this pack.  My prayer was to carry these to the Lord at Mt. Tabor where Jesus was transfigured while speaking with Moses and Elijah.  So I hiked the three mile walk all up the mountain.  It was not an easy walk, but I felt every step was the same step Peter, James and John took as they followed  Jesus and witnessed his transfiguration.  I even brought the T-shirt to remember the Lord has heard the prayers of the many I love and beyond.  We are all transformed by His great Love. How good it is that we are here.


Priests of the Holy Land Pilgrimage





Multiplication of the bread for the 5000



We also visited the two spots of the multiplication of loaves, where Jesus feed the five thousand and where Jesus feed the four thousand.  The feeding of the five thousand is honored by a beautiful church with the famous mosaic of the the two fish and basket with four loaves that one sees in art around the Holy Land.  The site of the four thousand is only marked by a rock.  Even here in the center of Christ's miracles we can become lazy and forget all He has done for us.  His miracles can remain hidden.



Multiplication of the bread for the 4000



During these days around the Sea of Galilee where most of Jesus's public ministry occurred, we lodged at the hotel located on Mt. Beatitudes.  Every morning, I was able to sit out quietly on the mountain top and overlook the sea of Galilee and pray.  Blessed are the poor, the sick, the meek and the peacemakers.  Blessed are we who have seen and know our Lord.