Our trek along the Mediterranean Sea on our way to Tiberias

Israel ... Land of the Bible ... Land of Faith ... the Holy Land, revered throughout recorded history as the cradle of monotheistic religion. For people of faith whose beliefs are rooted in the Bible, there is no place on earth like the Holy Land.

"... and many peoples shall come, and say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that He may teach us His ways and that we may walk in His paths.' For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem" (Isaiah 2:3-4).

We have come a long way to get a glimpse of what our faith has in store for us. It is amazing how much history we have as christian people in this country. To try and gather every thing there is to know would be a life time adventure. But today, we start by traveling along the Mediterranean coast traveling to Caesarea. This great Roman port city was visited by Peter and Paul. King Herod built a palace here to hide from his enemies. It was here too that Paul made his last appeal to the Romans explaining how they should repent and turn there gaze to God. (Acts 25:6-12). From there we continued on to Mt Carmel to tour the church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and say mass with the pilgrims. It is a beautiful church and to celebrate mass with everyone was a great blessing for me. We continued on to the top of Mount Carmel where the prophet Elijah had an encounter with the Phoenician princess Jezebel and the great sacrifice at Baal. (See 1 Kings 18).

The city of Nazareth was the pinnacle of this tour day. To visit the Basilica of the Annunciation, which stands over the cave that traditions holds to be the home of the Virgin Mary, was very moving for everyone. We were able to visit the ruins of the living quarters of the holy family. Amazingly, Nazareth was a very small town in comparison to the size it is today. Nazareth was not a noted town or a place anyone wanted to visit until Jesus' birth.

As night approached we had one more place to visit. That place being Cana - Jesus' first miracle of changing water into wine. (John 2: 1-11) Not only was this an important site in our faith history but it was also a special moment for me as I was able to celebrate  the renewing of marriage vows for the pilgrims. It was a brief ceremony but one filled with great emotion from those couples renewing their vows and to those in attendance. 

The day ended with us finding our hotel in Tiberias were we will stay a few days on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee.

Peace,

Fr John.