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Pilgrimage to the Holy Land: Day OneThe first photo is of some olive trees just over the fence from where we stopped at a truck stop for lunch. The second is the view from my window at our first hotel. The blue peeking out in the background is the Sea of Galilee and beyond that and visible with the eye but not in the picture are the Golan Heights across the lake.
What strikes me is how ordinary and normal it all is. Just another beautiful scene out the window like many others in God's creation. And yet how different and special it is. Why? Because Jesus Christ walked here, taught here, performed miracles here. And His presence changes everything. May we walk into our "normal" parts of the world and make them special because we take Jesus Christ with us in our hearts. Pilgrimage to the Holy Land: Day TwoThe Transfiguration of Jesus is that moment when Jesus takes his three closest disciples and heads up Mt. Tabor for prayer. While there Jesus is transfigured. His clothes become white as the light and his face shone like the sun.
Here are three photos: Mt. Tabor where the Transfiguration is thought to have occurred, the Church of the Transfiguration atop Mt. Tabor, and our spiritual leader, the Very Rev. Craig Loya, setting up for Holy Eucharist in the Moses Chapel of the Church of the Transfiguration. Celebrating the sacrament in such a holy place was a special moment - a changing or transfiguring moment for us all. But I felt just as profound a moment a little later in the day when I shared a simple, but lovely lunch with three of my fellow pilgrims. Turns out that God can touch us and work change in us in "mountain top" experiences, but also in the "ordinary" or our daily lives - like sharing a meal with another. 
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Pilgrimage to the Holy Land: Day 3
Two of my favorite experiences this day: a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee and a visit to the ruins of a First Century synagogue in Magdala (where Mary Magdalene once resided).
The photo is of one of the crew demonstrating the use of the kind of "casting net" that Peter, James, and John would have used when Jesus called them from being "fishermen" to "fishers of men". But the best part of the experience was just before this when the boat's engine was cut and we sat in silent meditation imagining what it would have been like when Jesus walked on water or when Jesus first met Peter and the others and told them to cast their nets on the other side and their haul was bountiful beyond imagining. The other photos are of the ruins of the First Century synagogue in Magdala. The photo below is of a part of the original tile floor. It is more likely than not that Jesus actually walked on this floor. Jesus! What a spiritual moment to realize that I was less than six feet away from where our Lord actually walked nearly 2,000 years ago. Jesus really and truly lived as one of us - and because of His victory over death in the resurrection, He lives still in our hearts and in our community. Thanks be to God. Alleluia! Alleluia! 
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Pilgrimage to the Holy Land: Day 4
Amazing Day! So much: Qumran where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, floating in the Dead Sea, and amazing ruins in Jericho, the oldest continually inhabited city in the world, but I'd like to share these photos.
You know how John the Baptist came out of the wilderness to proclaim a baptism for the repentance of sin? This is that wilderness! This is right outside Jericho and close to the place where they do baptisms to this day. The current place is probably not far from where John baptized Jesus Himself! Our group renewed our baptismal vows at the riverside and then I marked my forehead with water from the Jordan in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all the while imagining that Jesus was baptized in the water of this same river. I also filled a bottle with water from the Jordan to add to our own when we do baptisms going forward at St. Mary's. (It's much clearer when you let the sediment settle.) Why not take a moment to remember your own baptism and give thanks that you are a part of God's family? |
Pilgrimage to the Holy Land: Day 5
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This was one of the most powerful days yet. Two highlights were a visit to a the only Christian orphanage located in the Palestinian Territory that serves anyone who comes to their door and a visit to the Church of the Nativity built over the very place Jesus was born.
The love shown to the children by the sisters who run the orphanage was overwhelmingly beautiful and we celebrated Holy Eucharist in their chapel (photo). In this service I heard the most profound reading of the beginning of John I have heard. Our deacon felt it so deeply she could barely make it to the end through her tears. Such longing. "The light came to his own people, and his own people didn't welcome him." God chose to become one of us, suffer for us, die for us, and live again for us...and so often we turn away. May God help us to turn toward Him. Beneath the very ornate Greek Orthodox Church built over it (photo) is the bedrock of Bethlehem where Jesus was born. Was it this exact spot that we all got on our knees to touch? Who knows? It was surely very near here if not and I can tell you this - it certainly felt like it was touched by the divine. Such a stirring in my soul! May we all feel this movement of God in us every day of our lives. 
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Pilgrimage to The Holy Land: Day 6Today we followed in the footsteps of Jesus as He began in triumph on Palm Sunday and then journeyed through the agony of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.
After descending the steep sides of the Mount of Olives, we came upon the Garden of Gethsemane. As we know, the lovely mideastern garden shown in the photo can never hide the agony of Jesus’ anguish on the night of His betrayal when even His closest disciples could not keep awake and give him the comfort He longed for from His friends. I never realized before, but the Eastern Gate (also called the Beautiful Gate) shown in the next photo is directly across from the Garden. Jesus would have seen the torches of the Temple and Roman guards descending from the Eastern Gate announcing their approach as Judas led them to Jesus. The final photo is of the kind of plant that probably would have been used to weave the crown of thorns that was thrust so violently on Jesus’ head on Good Friday. With all of this as backdrop and emotion welling up inside me, I entered the Church of Gethsemane to pray sitting in the first pew. At the end of my time, an Indian family, father, mother daughter, and son approached the altar. There was no room at the altar rail and so they knelt together on the hard, marble floor of the church and prayed together as a family. Their faith and their gratitude to Jesus for His sacrifice touched me deeply. I cried. And I thanked God for yet one more gift. |
Pilgrimage to the Holy Land: Day 7
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Happy Pentecost People of St. Mary's!
Today we celebrated Pentecost at St. George's Cathedral in Jerusalem. The place was packed with Christians from all over the world and just like in the first Pentecost celebrated in Jerusalem there were multiple languages all being spoken at the same time as each person sang, prayed and responded in their own native language. St. George's has two ongoing congregations. One speaks primarily Arabic and one speaks primarily English. That's one of the ways that my eyes have been opened on this pilgrimage. Almost all of the Christians in Israel and the Palestinian Territory are of Arabic descent. Both photos are from St. George's Cathedral. After worship and a fabulous lunch in a nearby restaurant, we visited the Israel Museum to see the Shrine of the Book which houses parts of the Dead Sea Scrolls of Qumran. |
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Pilgrimage to the Holy Land: Day 8
We began today at Yad Vashem and the Holocaust Memorial. Photos are not allowed inside, but the first photo is of the Avenue of the Righteous. The Righteous are those non-Jews, who at risk to their own lives and with no thought of payment of any kind, worked to protect the Jewish people during the Nazi terror. A tree is planted for each righteous person and Oskar Schindler’s tree is planted along this particular route.
The next picture is of the altar at St. Peter in Gallicantu back in Jerusalem. This is at the site where Peter denied Jesus three times before the cock crowed when He had been taken before Herrod at Harrod’s palace. I presided at a service of Holy Eucharist with my fellow pilgrims at St. Peter’s, but in a chapel downstairs, not in this main nave. It was very moving to worship at such a site.
The final picture is of the stairs leading from the Old City of Jerusalem to Harrod’s Palace up on a facing hill. No other stairs being found linking these two sites, it is almost a certainty that our Lord Jesus Christ walked these very steps as he went to “trial” before Harrod and then away for eventual crucifxion. Most of the stairs are protected behind a strong fence, but they have left a section open for pilgrims to experience literally walking in the footsteps of Jesus. What an experience!
The next picture is of the altar at St. Peter in Gallicantu back in Jerusalem. This is at the site where Peter denied Jesus three times before the cock crowed when He had been taken before Herrod at Harrod’s palace. I presided at a service of Holy Eucharist with my fellow pilgrims at St. Peter’s, but in a chapel downstairs, not in this main nave. It was very moving to worship at such a site.
The final picture is of the stairs leading from the Old City of Jerusalem to Harrod’s Palace up on a facing hill. No other stairs being found linking these two sites, it is almost a certainty that our Lord Jesus Christ walked these very steps as he went to “trial” before Harrod and then away for eventual crucifxion. Most of the stairs are protected behind a strong fence, but they have left a section open for pilgrims to experience literally walking in the footsteps of Jesus. What an experience!
Pilgrimage to the Holy Land: Day 9The first photo is of the Western Wall, which is one of the most sacred sites in Jerusalem. It is not a part of the original temple as that was completely destroyed in 70 AD by the Romans. It is actually a part of a wall meant to enclose the temple and environs, but is still considered sacred as it is the closest one can get to the now-destroyed temple where many Jews feel God still dwells. At any time of day you will find many praying at the wall and sometimes leaving prayer intentions in the crevices of the wall. I did this and found it very moving.
The second photo is of the Shrine of the Dome of the Rock where Abraham nearly sacrificed Isaac. It is a shrine and not a mosque, but the mosque is just to the south of the Shrine still on Temple Mount. I ended my day at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre which houses three of the most holy sites in Christendom. Going just before closing at 9 pm allows one to have a few moments of private prayer and devotion not as possible in the heat of the day with all the crowds pressing in. The three holy sites are: the Stone of Anointing where Jesus' body was laid to be cleansed and anointed for burial (photo), the Chapel of Calvary where one can reach one's hand through a hole underneath the altar and touch the very rock of Mount Calvary (or Golgotha) where Jesus was crucified, and the Tomb of Jesus. Words cannot describe how it feels to touch and pray at these places graced by the loving sacrifice of Jesus. |
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