Meanwhile, here are a few of the places in which we celebrated our Masses.
Our first Mass was at the Grotto of the Annunciation in Nazareth... a wonderful place to begin our pilgrimage.
The basilica on the Mount of the Beatitudes...
We felt like Peter, James and John as we celebrated Mass on Mt. Tabor, where Christ was transfigured...
The Church of the Agony, and in front of the altar, the stone where Christ knelt and sweat drops of blood...
And at the very center of it all -- the Holy Sepulchre, the tomb in which Christ rose from the dead. I offered the Mass inside the tomb, on the very spot where Christ's lifeless Body was placed on Good Friday...
3 comments:
Wow! Take a look at my blog Belmont Abbey holy land pilgrimage!
Any idea what the next parish pilgrimage will be? I really want to see Canterbury, Walsingham, etc. in England.... --James G.
Fr. Christopher,
I am glad to see so many pictures from your journey. I wonder if you ran into the Franciscans who take care of the holy sites, their organization's name was something like, a Foundation for the Holy Sites. I knew a Father Peter there who had adopted the Marines at the U.S. Consulate and considered himself their chaplain, and I should say we conceded the fact. He and a British priest, Father Luke, showed me around Jerusalem while I was on Embassy duty in the Middle East (2000-2002). In fact I remember the first time, we visited the Dome of the Rock about two weeks before Ariel Sharon did and sparked off the latest round of the whole bloddy mess again over there.
Whenever I was sent to Jerusalem after that I would stop in on the Franciscans (you may remember my Dad started out as a Franciscan.) I am sorry I don't remember the exact name of their organization, but they had a, well, what I suppose I would call a barracks or quarters, at the Garden of Gethsemane. I have often wondered if those priests are still there and how they are doing.
Semper Fidelis,
Shaun FitzPatrick
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