9 days in heaven

As we race towards sunrise and the Holy Land at 611 miles per hour, my mind races between my worries about changes at work and the wondrous sites that will be seeing over the next nine days. 

9 Days later

This week everything about having been in the Holy Land is beginning to hit me. Maybe it is the jet lag finally wearing off. Maybe it is verbally sharing my story with others. I don't know for sure, but starting yesterday all of the little things keep coming to mind. In the middle of praying the rosary at the convent during lunch, I could see myself at the spot of each of the mysteries, where Jesus taught the Our Father, and at the sites of the Annunciation and the Visitation (where the Hail Mary were stated). During mass, being at the upper room and Calvary immediately come to mind. It is as if instead of just saying the words of the prayers, the meaning behind them is now much more apparent. That wasn't happening before yesterday, but now everything seems to have that much more meaning. I keep getting goose bumps as it happens. I continue to pray that I can share my experiences am that they might have a similar impact on others as they have had on me.

Click here to read everything in-between!

If God is everywhere, why go on a pilgrimage?

(The Catholic Spirit | Liz Kelly for The Catholic Spirit | June 19, 2014)  I once read that Minnesota has one of the highest numbers of perpetual Eucharistic adoration chapels in the country. Truly, God is with us.

If that’s the case, do I really need to haul myself at great effort and expense — enduring, God forbid, other pilgrims! — to some dusty foreign land to pay him homage, to make known my needs for healing, forgiveness, grace? The answer of course is, no — and perhaps, yes.

Consider: Jesus was a regular pilgrim. The Gospel of Luke tells us he would make the journey to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover every year with his parents.

The earliest pilgrimages were very much like we might imagine this journey was for Jesus: a caravan of company walking for days together along dusty mountain roads, no doubt their minds humming with the familiar prayer of the psalmist: “‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’ Our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem. . . . To it the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, As was decreed for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord.”

Binding our hearts

To walk where Jesus walked, and pray where he prayed, and learn more intimately the heart of that healing carpenter from Nazareth, a pilgrimage, particularly to the Holy Land, does mark us in a unique way.

When we make a pilgrimage, we are binding our hearts to every pilgrim-saint who has journeyed before us and to every longing of the human soul to seek more deeply, more authentically the face of God.

As Father Murray Bodo writes in his excellent book, “The Place We Call Home: Spiritual Pilgrimage As a Path to God,” “Pilgrimages are not about one place being more holy than another, for God is everywhere. Making pilgrimages involves a response to something inside us that longs to move toward, that seeks the holy beyond.”

And, the good news is, this can happen even on a tour bus with Wi-Fi.

The pilgrim’s credo

I am not in control.

I am not in a hurry.

I walk in faith and hope.

I greet everyone with peace.

I bring back only what God gives me.

The Holy Land

As Christians, we would have no other pilgrimage — to Lourdes, to Ars, to Guadalupe, to the Station Churches of Rome during the Lenten season, to walk the Camino, to climb the Holy Steps on our knees — without the birthplace of our pilgrim souls: Jerusalem.

For such a tiny bit of geography, Israel in general and Jerusalem in particular, has a history fraught with every kind of tension — religious, political, economic. This in some ways is what makes it uniquely fitting to the pilgrim heart. For you will not awake at 4 a.m. in Jerusalem to the sound of church bells, but to the Muslim call to prayer, those low and moaning tones lifted to Allah drifting out over a sleeping city.

And, at the Wailing Wall — the place according to Jewish tradition where Abraham was asked to sacrifice Isaac — you will see that men and women are separated, the women only recently granted a small portion to approach this holiest of Jewish ground with their prayers. Jerusalem is a powerful clash of orthodoxies. It heightens in fresh ways the truly radical teaching of Christ.

And so we go, not to escape the travails of everyday life, but to give them perspective.

We go, not to take a vacation or recreate, but to allow God to re-create our deepest selves.

We take our broken hearts and broken bodies across oceans and over thousands of miles, sitting for hours in cramped airplanes and airports, to distant shrines and ancient ruins, to places where the language and culture may be unfamiliar and uncomfortable — not to remind God, but to remind ourselves that we are part of an eternal narrative, a glorious true story of hope, resurrection and redemptive victory.

We endure the jostle of crowds and the chatter of tour guides even in these, the holiest places on earth, because it helps us to remember the proper horizon of our lives is not health, wealth, comfort, success, being well loved or highly regarded — but a sweeping need for healing and grace and the eternal good news, all of which Jesus wants to provide in abundance.

Preparation helps

The Church teaches that “pilgrimages evoke our earthly journey toward heaven and are . . . special occasions for renewal in prayer.” Indeed, central to any pilgrimage must be prayer — prayer that begins long before you decide which shoes to pack.

My preparation — one I highly recommend if possible — included completing the Ignatian Exercises over the nine months prior to my departure. The Exercises invite you to meditate in a very concentrated way on the life of Christ.

My spiritual director would tell me: “Look at what Jesus is doing in your meditation, dwell with him.” It is a fitting definition for any “pilgrimage” great or small: We go to dwell with him.

Kelly is the author of five books, including “Reasons I Love Being Catholic,” and recently returned from her first pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

The theme of the pilgrimage was one word: HERE

(by Fr. Greg Shaffer, Chaplain, GWCatholics, George Washington University Newman Center)

Nineteen of us from GW just returned from a 10 day pilgrimage to the Holy Land, including seventeen students.  

It was AWESOME!  For almost all of us, it was our first time.  God completely blessed our trip, and made each day greater than the one before it.  The first half of our time was spent at the Sea of Galilee which was gorgeous.  This is where Jesus was!  He performed miracles there, walked on water there, and handed over his authority to Peter there (“feed my sheep”).  The views in the morning and evening were especially breath-taking.  So many of us fell in love with the Sea of Galilee.  It was so beautiful and peaceful, and lended easily to prayer.  Think I’ve found my retirement spot!  One morning, I posted on Facebook that I went for a run and touched the Sea of Galilee.  Incredible!

The second half of our pilgrimage was in Jerusalem.  This was much more chaotic, busy, and touristy.  But, the holy sites there were so powerful and overwhelming.  We visited the Church of the Annunciation and the students got that that’s where it all started…the Word became flesh.  The Mass at the Church of Agony at the Garden of Gethsemane was particularly powerful because that’s where Christ first shed His blood that we offer at every Mass. And, then, we had Mass in the tomb!  I celebrated Mass on a marble slab where Christ’s body laid for 3 days and then was resurrected…!  That was the most emotional Mass I have ever celebrated. 

The theme of the pilgrimage was one word: HERE.  At each of these places, the prayers in the priest’s book (missal) said HERE.  “The Word became flesh HERE”.  “Christ was born HERE”.  “Christ rose from the dead HERE”.  No other missals in the world say that. We were there and celebrated Mass where these major events of our salvation happened!

If you ever get a chance to go the Israel, please do.  First, it was very safe. At no time was our safety at risk. Second, it was life-changing.  19 of us went; there were 19 conversions.  We are all different people now.  We spanned the spectrum of faith; some were full of faith, some were doubters going into the trip.  We are all believers now, having had a special encounter with Christ in the Holy Land.

Towards the end of our time there, we visited the Upper Room.  This is a significant site for us for a number of reasons: it was there that Christ celebrated the Last Supper, instituted the Eucharist and Priesthood, and where today’s feast of Pentecost occurred.  At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came upon the Apostles as tongues of fire (why the sanctuary and priest are donned with red today).  The Apostles had been afraid to even go outside after Jesus ascended “for fear of the Jews”.  I talked to our students about this on the trip.  It was actually on the feast of the Ascension that I quoted the Gospel: “they worshiped but doubted”.

Think about what that means.  The Apostles were taught by Jesus for three years, got to know him well as a friend, witnessed His passion, death, resurrection, and ascension.  After all that, they doubted and were afraid. They were at all of the holy sites we were…and they were with Jesus!  I pointed this out to the students, and asked them what changed for the Apostles.  It was the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  The Spirit filled them with faith, not fear.  He filled them with courage, wisdom and zeal to go out and proclaim Jesus. They did that, and on the first day of going out, three thousand people were baptized.  It was the start of the Catholic Church.  The Spirit spoke through the Apostles that day, started the Church, and has been guiding the Church ever since. 

As I told the students, pray to the Holy Spirit.   If you are doubting or are afraid or feel that God is a million miles away, ask the Spirit to help you know Christ’s presence.  “Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful”.  Fill our hearts with your love.  Fill our hearts with your truth, your peace, your joy. Help us to be filled with faith, not fear.  Help us to go out and proclaim Jesus as the Apostles did.

Pentecost was the first Confirmation.  It was for our own sake that you and I were baptized; it was for the sake of others that we were confirmed.  The purpose of Pentecost was to send the Apostles out; the purpose of our Confirmation was to go out on the mission of the Church.  Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid to go out and proclaim Jesus with your lives.

College Students Begin Holy Land Pilgrimage Day After Pope Leaves

Fr. Greg Shaffer, Chaplain of the George Washington University Newman Center will be leading students on an 11-day pilgrimage to the Holy Land, the first of its kind for the student center for Catholics. The GWCatholics arrive the day after Pope Francis departs.

The planning for their pilgrimage began over one year ago. But the time has passed quickly, according to George Washington University Newman Center Chaplain, Fr. Greg Shaffer.

Departing on May 27, Fr. Shaffer and Olivia Bee, student coordinator, will embark on an 11-day pilgrimage to the Holy Land. They will narrowly miss Pope Francis, who departs the Holy Land after his “pilgrimage of prayer” on May 26.

Though the GWCatholics, as they are called, have done service projects and mission trips with the students before, according to Fr. Shaffer this will be the first Holy Land pilgrimage they will make.

Speaking about the difference between prior mission trips and a pilgrimage, Fr. Shaffer emphasized the power of the "extraordinary graces available" on a pilgrimage.

"A pilgrimage helps individuals be more open to what God is doing in their lives," said Tekton PR Associate, Chris Weldon.

"By being in a particular place and encountering the history of events and people in that place, one can be more open to the underlying message that was communicated at that time, much like being at the Statue of Liberty can help people to enter into the experience of the waves of immigrants who came to the United States in the 19th century."

When asked what he wanted for his student parishioners to take away from their upcoming pilgrimage, Fr. Shaffer's answer was clear. "I want them to have a deeper conversion to Christ."

He himself is looking forward to his Tekton Ministries Holy Land pilgrimage, "being in the places where Jesus was, especially where the acts of our salvation took place."

The GWCatholics return from their pilgrimage on June 6.

Tekton Ministries has been providing pilgrimages to the Holy Land since 1996.

For more information, contact Chris Weldon, PR Associate and Social Media Coordinator for Tekton Ministries at (866) 905-3787.For more information on Catholic pilgrimages or other Tekton services contact Chris Weldon at Tekton Ministries, (866) 905-3787.

Pope Francis prays at Western Wall

Vatican City, 25 May 2014 (VIS) – At 8 a.m. the Pope transferred from Temple Mount to the Western Wall, or “Wailing Wall”. Fifteen meters high, this wall is a place of worship for the Jews for historical and religious reasons, and is linked to numerous traditions such as that of leaving prayers written on small pieces of paper between the blocks of the wall. Francis was received by the Chief Rabbi, who accompanied him to the wall. The Pope prayed in silence before the wall and, like his predecessors, left a piece of paper on which he had written the Lord's Prayer; he said, “I have written it in Spanish because it is the language I learned from my mother”.

He then proceeded to Monte Herzl where, in accordance with protocol on official visits and assisted by a Christian boy and girl, he left a wreath of flowers in the Israel national cemetery at the tomb of Theodore Herzl, founder of the Zionist movement. The Holy Father also strayed slightly from his itinerary to pray at a tomb for the victims of terrorism in Israel.

He then traveled by car to the Yad Vashem Memorial, a monument built in 1953 by the State of Israel to commemorate the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Along with the president and director of the Center, the Pope walked around the perimeter of the Mausoleum before entering the Remembrance Hall, where he was awaited by the president, the prime minister, and the Rabbi president of the Council of Yad Vashem. Inside the Hall there is a monument with an eternal flame positioned in front of the crypt, which contains several urns with the ashes of victims of various concentration camps. The Pope lit the flame, placed a yellow and white floral wreath in the Mausoleum and, before his address, read from the Old Testament. He then spoke briefly about strength and the pain of man's inhuman evil and on the “structures of sin” that oppose the dignity of the human person, created in the image and semblance of God.

“'Adam, where are you?'. Where are you, o man? What have you come to? In this place, this memorial of the Shoah, we hear God’s question echo once more: 'Adam, where are you?' This question is charged with all the sorrow of a Father who has lost his child. The Father knew the risk of freedom; he knew that his children could be lost… yet perhaps not even the Father could imagine so great a fall, so profound an abyss! Here, before the boundless tragedy of the Holocaust, that cry – “Where are you?” – echoes like a faint voice in an unfathomable abyss…

“Adam, who are you? I no longer recognize you. Who are you, o man? What have you become? Of what horror have you been capable? What made you fall to such depths? Certainly it is not the dust of the earth from which you were made. The dust of the earth is something good, the work of my hands. Certainly it is not the breath of life which I breathed into you. That breath comes from me, and it is something good.

“No, this abyss is not merely the work of your own hands, your own heart… Who corrupted you? Who disfigured you? Who led you to presume that you are the master of good and evil? Who convinced you that you were god? Not only did you torture and kill your brothers and sisters, but you sacrificed them to yourself, because you made yourself a god.

“Today, in this place, we hear once more the voice of God: “Adam, where are you?”

“From the ground there rises up a soft cry: 'Have mercy on us, O Lord!' To you, O Lord our God, belongs righteousness; but to us confusion of face and shame.

“A great evil has befallen us, such as never happened under the heavens. Now, Lord, hear our prayer, hear our plea, save us in your mercy. Save us from this horror.

“Almighty Lord, a soul in anguish cries out to you. Hear, Lord, and have mercy! We have sinned against you. You reign for ever. Remember us in your mercy. Grant us the grace to be ashamed of what we men have done, to be ashamed of this massive idolatry, of having despised and destroyed our own flesh which you formed from the earth, to which you gave life with your own breath of life. Never again, Lord, never again!

“'Adam, where are you?' Here we are, Lord, shamed by what man, created in your own image and likeness, was capable of doing. Remember us in your mercy”.

The Holy Father concluded his visit by speaking with some Holocaust survivors and signed the Yad Vashem Book of Honour, where he wrote: “With shame for what man, created in the image and likeness of God, was able to do. With shame that man become the patron of evil; with the shame for what man, believing himself to be god, sacrificed his brothers to himself. Never again! Never again!"

He bid farewell to the chorus and the authorities who had greeted him upon arrival, and left by car for the Heichal Shlomo Centre.

1st Quarter 2014 sets new all-time high for Holy Land Tourism

Tekton Ministries pilgrims help make this happen.

New York - April 14, 2014: 284,000 tourists from around the world arrived in Israel in March 2014, a 13% increase compared to the same period last year and a new all-time high for tourism to Israel.

705,288 tourists arrived in Israel between January and March 2014, a 17% increase compared to the same period last year. The U.S. is the number one source of tourism to Israel (20% of tourists to Israel come from North America), followed by much closer destinations such as Russia, Germany, France and the U.K.

"We are thrilled to see a continual increase in tourism to Israel following last year's record-breaking figures," said Haim Gutin, Israel Commissioner for Tourism, North and South America, "which attests to Israel's growing reputation as one of the world's most unique and inspiring travel destinations."

A record 3.54 million tourists from around the world arrived in Israel in 2013. 

Media Contacts

Ross Belfer at WEILL - rbelfer@geoffreyweill.com - 1-866-PRWEILL

Learn more about the link between pilgrimage and Christianity

Thanks to Fr. James Martin, SJ for copy of his Jesus: A pilgrimage book! We look forward to reading it and understanding more ourselves about the importance of making a pilgrimage for Christians- especially to the Holy Land!

Notre Dame student travels with Tekton Ministries to the Holy Land and starts blog

My Holy Land Pilgrimage

Posted on March 30, 2014 by cserena

I was blessed to have the opportunity to go on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with parishioners from St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Indianapolis last week, and so I would like to break from my Rome blog to share a bit about this wonderful pilgrimage.

–

After 30 minutes of being questioned by the Israeli security in Rome that involved checking my emails, asking questions about my host family, my past jobs, the writing in my bible, a full search and weigh of the items in my luggage, and a wipe down of my stuff as they looked for explosive residue, I finally got through…only to meet the Italian security…who did not even bother to open my passport. I sat on the plane next to two Jews whose parents were imprisoned during the Holocaust in Germany. They talked about it for awhile with me because it related to an article in the newspaper for that day. I was struck by the obvious pain that the horrendous acts of World War II still causes them and their family today. After a while the wife sighed and said, “I just don’t understand how someone could hate us so much” and all I could say was, “Neither can I. It’s terrible.” Where can a conversation go from there?

–

I was picked up at the airport by an Armenian Christian named Jack. He was very friendly and helpful and had a license plate that said, “Jack is the man”. He refused my tip and instead gave me bottled water and showed me around my hotel (which ironically was run by Italian Franciscans) and the Church of the Nativity.

I ended up spending the evening with a group of Anglicans from England. They invited me to eat dinner with them at our hotel and afterwards I went to their Night Prayer service, which was led by one of their bishops. 

To read more from Christina, visit her Holy Land blog at by clicking here.

Jesus, the devil and gondola rides?

Say what?  That's right.  Our Holy Land pilgrimage comes complete with a gondola ride.  Where to?  The Mount of Temptation.  How else does one get from here:

to here?

 

The Scripture from St. Matthew reads, "Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil." (4:1)  I don't know about you but I'd rather take a 15 minute gondola ride, enjoy the view, and head back down.  No need to fast 40 days/nights and then be tempted by the devil. 

"Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them; and he said to him, 'All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.'" (4:8-9)  Yeah, no, I'm good; thanks.  The gondola view is just fine with me.

Anyway, what made me think of all this is a piece Foxnews.com ran in their Travel section. (To give credit where it is due, it was actually put together by Condé Nast Traveler.)  What got me was that they didn't include the Holy Land gondola ride!  Ok, a ride through the Alps is beautiful and so is Croatia.  But Jesus wasn't tempted by the devil on the slopes in Switzerland!  

Not only is the Mount of Temptation gondola a beautiful ride (see below) but it is such a unique opportunity.  Everyone who has gone skiing or hiking has taken a gondola ride.  But to do so from one of the oldest cities on earth to the place where Jesus conquered the devil...now that's a gondola ride worth taking!  When your friends brag about taking a gondola ride in Sydney over the zoo, you can say, "Oh?  That's nice.  We rode the one up to where Jesus said, 'Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'  Havvvvve a nice day."  (Of course you'd say it in a Christian manner and all.)

But really, taking a pilgrimage to the Holy Land means walking in the Sea of Galilee, touching the place where Jesus was born, riding a gondola onto the Mount of Temptation and a whole lot more.  It's worth every penny.