Israel: April 14th - May 24th 2023

Just after a beautiful experience of Holy Week and Easter in Denver, I set out for a new adventure. For many years, I have felt a strong pull towards spending time in Israel. My time with Beatitudes Missions was originally motivated by this same desire. In July of 2022, I spent a month in Lebanon (read my old posts if you're curious!), and I remember feeling some heartache at the idea of being so close to a place that I had wanted to be for so long without actually being able to go.

Fast forward eight months, and I am finally able to reach the place that I had been aching to see for a long time. The plan was to fly there quite early, which allowed me to settle in, pray, and dig into more practical preparations for a pilgrimage that we were putting on for American college students. Originally, I was supposed to stay in the Community house, in a very similar life to what I was living in the States with occasional opportunity for personal travel. However, as my departure approached, it was clear that the house didn't have room for me for that amount of time. It was a difficult (and scary) process to handle the idea of solo traveling for the first time, moving from host home to host home for weeks on end. I didn't (and still don't) speak or read Hebrew, and I was at a loss on how to prepare myself for being alone in a foreign country. The weeks before my departure were a time of deep trust in God's providence, and I felt that He was able to guide and prepare my heart better than I ever could on my own.

I was assigned a few errands in the heart of Jerusalem the morning of my arrival. A bit dazed from jet lag and carrying everything for the next few months on my back, I found my way to the Old City of Jerusalem and just wandered. The heat of the day hadn't set in yet, the market stalls were boarded up until the tourists arrived, and it was quiet.

Left: The calm early-morning market, which I later discovered to be a loud and chaotic place. I could hear the voices of the shopkeepers echoing down the empty cobblestoned street, speaking in Arabic as they shared a morning coffee. Right: I took so many photos of the buildings that I passed. They weren't beautiful in a typical way, but I was so fascinated by the colors and shapes and wires that were cobbled together into a building. Nothing matched, the laundry was out hanging off of someone's balcony, signs and graffiti were in a mix of Hebrew, Arabic, and sometimes English.

Over the course of three weeks, I stayed with a combination of Christian and Jewish families that lived anywhere from the heart of Jerusalem to the far northern border of the country. I was able to experience how Christianity is lived out in Israel through the families that I lived with, and their way of witnessing to the Gospel in a majority Jewish or Muslim environment. I also experienced life within a Jewish family during the special weekly time of Sabbath. From Friday evening to Saturday evening, Jews are required to observe Sabbath, and refrain from cooking, cleaning, driving, or using technology. It's time that is consecrated and given to God, as reflected in the third commandment: "You shall keep the Sabbath day holy." It was something completely foreign to me, but something I found to be immensely peaceful and meaningful as a Christian.

Left: my warm welcome into the Khoury family, with a card written by their youngest daughter, Maria. Middle: The first night's sunset over the city of Haifa was the best welcome I could have received! Right: At the end of a long walk, Maria and I stopped and picked mulberries for at least 20 minutes. Still the best mulberries I've ever had.

After three weeks and four different families, the time had finally come to begin our pilgrimage! We welcomed fifteen American college students who had just finished their study abroad program in Austria. Our pilgrimage began in the desert of southern Israel, the place where Abraham was led by God, the place of the fathers of the Old Testament. After about an hour of driving from where we started in the Judean hills, the landscape suddenly changed. The trees thinned and eventually became nonexistent, the colors of the land changed from lush green to brown to almost gray. The hills stayed the same but the vegetation, the houses, the civilization slowly faded away as we continued to drive. After another hour, our bus was one of the only vehicles along the road that stretched out in front of us across the barren plain.

As our group drove deep into the Negev desert, we received a teaching about how the desert is a place of meeting with God the Father. The photo above captures one of my favorite moments of the pilgrimage. We hiked up to a cliff where we had an opportunity for silent prayer. As we looked down into the valley below us, we could hear the calls of the swallows, the only living thing besides us in the entire area.

We spent the next two nights in the Negev desert, camping at small sites that consisted of a firepit, a small retaining wall, and an area covered in pea gravel that was meant for us to sleep. Because of the season, there was no need for tents (and in the desert, we could be especially sure that it wouldn't rain). It got dark and cold soon after we finished cooking dinner over our small camp stoves, so we all huddled against the retaining wall that was our only shelter against the relentless wind. After a day of hiking out in the sun we all fell asleep relatively quickly, despite the wind, the cold, and the gravel we were sleeping on.

Because of how bad the wind was, we had to make a human windblock just to keep the camp stoves lit. Our campsites had it all - firepit, dining room, chapel, bunk rooms. You just needed a little imagination ;)

After two full days of no showers, no running water, and no toilets, we made our way back to civilization. Our bus took us along the cliffsides that looked over the Dead Sea, driving us back north and dropping us on the banks of the Jordan River. As a small group of smelly college kids who had literally just wandered in out of the desert, we must have made quite the impression on the middle-aged meandering tourist groups that crowded along the river banks. We celebrated Mass close by, and had the opportunity to immerse ourselves in the Jordan River. After being in the desert for two days, it was an incredible experience to have the literal dirt washed off of your body just as your original sin was washed from you at your original Baptism.

After having Mass on the Jordan River, we took the long bus ride north to Galilee. Our camp was right on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, and one of my most memorable experiences was the first night. Myself, along with one of the other pilgrims, decided to go swimming in the Sea of Galilee before going to bed. As we swam with the lights of the city Tiberias shining across the water and the stars above us, we both reflected on how many times Jesus and his disciples must have done the same thing. It was so simple to feel that you were walking in step with Jesus, going to the places where he lived, worked, and spent time with his friends.

This fact became especially true for our whole group when we had the opportunity to walk between various sites. On one day, we walked back and forth between Capernaum and the site of the Primacy of Peter (where the resurrected Jesus appeared to the apostles as recounted in John 21). The distance was under two miles, but with the 100 degree heat and high humidity, we all struggled. As we made small talk to distract ourselves from the heat, we reflected on how much time Jesus spent walking from place to place. Each movement recorded in the Gospels is no small thing; we started to live the daily experience of Jesus and the Apostles.

From left to right: Singing evening prayer with Sister, looking out over the water. Jackie, the other intern, caught me journaling one quiet evening near our campsite. One morning, we hiked up the Mount of Beatitudes, stopping to read the Sermon on the Mount on our way to celebrate Mass.

From left to right: We all gathered around a long picnic table to eat home-cooked meals (and Israeli wine) prepared by some of the pilgrims! The morning view from the edge of our campsite. The first day, I found a baby praying mantis!

We camped for a few days in Galilee, making day trips to Bethlehem and Nazareth. For both outings, our ragtag group of nineteen took public buses, navigating through bus stations with barely any English signage and belligerent cab drivers. The experience bonded all of us, sharing the experience of running for (and missing) buses and singing at the bus stops.

We visited the church of the Annunciation in Nazareth, where the Angel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary. On the altar in the deepest part of the church, closest to the place where the event actually happened, the inscription reads: Verbum caro hic factum est (The Word was made flesh here.)

L to R: We jaywalked our way from the remote Galilee bus stop to the center of Nazareth! (highlight: running to catch our connecting bus at the very last second) The crypt of the Church of the Annunciation. On our way back to our camp spot, we made a quick pit stop at Cana, the site of Jesus' first miracle.

In Bethlehem, we walked all the way across town to celebrate Mass at the Shepherd's field, a park on the outskirts of town where the angels appeared to lowly shepherds tending their flocks. It's a hillside dotted with sparse vegetation and caves that we got to explore. After making the walk back into town, we visited the Church of the Nativity, one of the oldest churches in the Holy Land. There, we were able to go into the deep cave-like crypt of the church to venerate the place where Christ was first brought into the world.

1) A much-needed snack break on the long walk through Bethlehem, consisting of Manakish, bread with Za'atar spice. 2) I had to try out my own herding skills, but was unsuccessful. 3) Mass at the Shepherd's field. 4) After Mass, we dispersed into exploring the caves that dotted the hillside. 5) Sister Magdalit, our guide, holding our new pilgrimage mascot. 6) My view descending the steps into the crypt of the Nativity.

At the end of a long day in Bethlehem, we caught a very crowded bus to Jerusalem. It was especially important that we caught the late afternoon bus because it was a Friday. All Israeli public transportation shuts down before Sabbath "comes in," which would have left us stranded (a fact I discovered the hard way during my solo travels). Both Father Anthony and Sister Magdalit, the co-leaders of our trip, had spent almost two decades combined living in the Holy Land. Through this time, they fostered relationships with many different people, including Jewish families. The fostering of interfaith relationships in the Holy Land is something especially important to the Community of the Beatitudes, and one way that these relationships are fostered is through allowing American groups to experience a Sabbath in Israel with Jewish families. We split into small groups and set out into the heart of Jerusalem to meet up with our assigned families for the night. My group joined with a couple who patiently explained the basics of Shabbat and Jewish spirituality. They then walked with us to their synagogue. It was a young "student" synagogue that sang and danced as they celebrated Sabbath, and seeing the shocked, excited, and perhaps half-scandalized faces of our group was priceless.

After being immersed in the Jewish experience of Sabbath in Jerusalem, the next morning we transitioned towards Jesus' final days in the Holy City. While we were in Galilee, we all felt how we walked with Jesus in his ministry and upbringing, his life with his family and friends. In Jerusalem, we began to feel the depth and solemnity of Jesus' Passion and death. From our dormitories just outside the Old City walls, we walked to the Mount of Olives, where Jesus experienced the Agony in the Garden. At the place where Jesus prayed to His Father just before his arrest, we said Mass and venerated the site.

1) Action shot of us hauling our packs to hop a tram just outside the Old City. 2) Our group overlooking Jerusalem! 3) Preparing for Mass on the site of the Agony in the Garden. 4) Walking the Way of the Cross. 5) Just near the place of Jesus' imprisonment at the Sanhedrin, there's a beautiful overlook of the city. 6) Our final stop of the stations of the cross: the Holy Sepulchre, Jesus' tomb.

We continued the Way of the Cross through the streets of Jerusalem, singing as we went. We pushed our way through the crowds that lined the market stalls looking for souvenirs, trying not to lose any members of our group in the chaos. Our final stop was at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which contains both the site of Calvary and Jesus' tomb. Our group knelt in silence in a quiet corner of the otherwise busy church, soaking in the mystery of Jesus' sacrifice for us.

The blessing of my time in the Holy Land has only been made more clear in the time after I left. When I open the Scriptures, I can imagine the places more clearly than I ever could. Encountering the real nature of the land that Jesus lived in brings his life into even more of a concrete reality. There's a sense that Jesus invited each of us pilgrims to experience Him in a new way through the pilgrimage.

Other moments and photos! (in roughly chronological order)

*Note: this pilgrimage occurred long before the war in Israel began, and was written largely beforehand as well. I hope to make a separate blog post on my experiences on pilgrimage during the war in Israel more recently.