Greetings from the “Mount of the Beatitudes!”
About a week before we left for the Holy Land, we were given “packing instructions.” In addition to being told to ‘pack lite – if for no other reason than it’s 90-95 degrees in Israel – we were also told to leave our computers behind. (Seeing as I use my netbook to store all the pictures from my camera, I asked why computers shouldn’t be packed. I thought I’d hear something like: “Having a computer makes it more difficult to get through Israeli security.” But the answer was: “Because there’s no internet at any of the places we’re staying.” I opted to pack my 3-pound netbook, and am I glad that I did. In each of the locations we’ve stayed, there’s been internet – and it’s a WHOLE LOT FASTER than the internet connection at the seminary in Rome! This means that, in the evenings after our daily pilgrimage excursions, I’ve been able to spend some time working on additional videos. A video of several Roman experiences is rendering as I type; and I’m also concurrently uploading a slew of Holy Land pictures for another video. If all goes well, in the next day-or-two, there should be another couple of videos posted! (All this can change, though, if our next pilgrim-house doesn’t have internet access)
The experience of the Holy land is phenomenal! I was a bit apprehensive about traveling to Israel again because I was here in 1993 on a retreat for priests. But, in the last three days that we’ve been in Israel, I’ve only revisited one site; everything else has been new! And even the revisited site yielded new revelations and insights!
Though you’ll see many things in the pictures, one of the best experiences thusfar has been the visit to the Church of St. Joseph in Nazareth – just a stones throw from the Basilica of the Annunciation which is built atop the childhood residence of the Blessed Virgin. In the Church of St. Joseph, built atop St. Joseph’s home, there were some stained glass windows depicting: the wedding of Mary and Joseph, as well as the Death of St. Joseph. I’ve never seen either event depicted anywhere – and to see them captured in glass was a deeply spiritual moment.
When last I was in Israel, I think we stayed on the “tourist paths.” Today, Sunday, 10/17, we journeyed into the Golan Heights area – and were but a few miles from the Israeli/Syrian border. In fact, the lookout point at which we stopped had us looking down upon the UN peacekeeping village … and into a Syrian border town. We even drove past a fenced off area with signs warning everyone to stay out because of landmines; rest assured that we stayed clear of that area.
Why travel so close to the Syrian border? Well, we were following the path of St. Peter and were making our way to the ancient city of Caesarea Philippi (while it was a spiritual location, it wasn’t much to see – so there are memories, but no real pictures of it are in the video). We also got to see the ancient ruins of the City of Dan – yes, of that there are a few pics in the up-and-coming video.
BE SURE to check back in another few days for the HOLY LAND video; it’ll most likely be on this page.