Amazing Day!
What a truly amazing day today!
We started at the Church of the Annunciation - I could write pages about this church and all that is a part of its history. Most importantly the church is built around the home of our Blessed Mother where we she was visited by the Angel Gabriel. The childhood home of Jesus is visibly present in one of the current side altars. It was humbling beyond belief to sit, look, reflect and pray in the same location that little Jesus called "home" as a young boy. A picture is attached at the bottom of this blog entry.
There is also a neat connection to this church and Angelo Cardinal Roncalli. In 1959 Pope John XXIII commissioned a new church to be built on this site (around the home of Mary and the church that currently stood there.) The church was built and eventually consecrated by his successor Pope Paul VI.
Countries from around the world have contributed to the church by having their own ethnic tribute/interpretation of Mary. So there are beautiful pieces of work of Mary from all over the world and they are breathtaking.
We then went literally next door to the Church of St. Joseph, which was built over the top of his carpentry workshop. We went to mass in this church and it was beautiful. The mass was in Arabic so we did not understand much. But therein lies some of the beauty of the universal church in that we clearly understood the Eucharist. What a humbling, beautiful experience to celebrate mass in the Church of St. Joseph on the celebration of Father's Day back home. A picture at the bottom of this blog entry shows one of the most beautiful stained glass pieces I have ever seen - it is Mary and Jesus showing such tender love and care for an ailing, dying Joseph.
Next we traveled to the eastern border of Israel where it shares a border with Jordan to view the National Park of Bet She'an. This is one of the world's best preserved Roman cities. I cannot imagine a better preserved Roman city in the world than we saw today. I have been to the Forum in Rome multiple times and this preservation today was incredible in terms of the unbelievable condition in which so much of this city has been maintained. The amphitheater was INCREDIBLE. Over 2000 years old and still all in original form and amazing. And we think it unbelievable in the states when we have a venue that is 100 years old. There is a picture of the amphitheater at the end of today's blog. It does not do it justice but at least gives you an idea of just how well preserved this area is.
As we traveled on the highway on our way to Cana we drove past the Mountain of the Transfiguration! Unfortunately, our tour did not include a stop at the top of this mountain but it was amazing to see the mountain and visualize this incredible event. The Franciscans now have a church at the top of this mountain. I have included at the bottom of the blog a picture of this mountain.
To end our day today we finished in Cana at the location where Christ performed his first miracle of turning water into wine. It is very hard to put into words what it is like to be walking in these areas in which you know the Savior of the world has walked. We had a couple in our tour group who had arranged with the local priest to renew their wedding vows today in the small side chapel of the Church of Cana. He was a wonderful, jovial priest from Ghana. He invited any of the married couples in the group to also participate in the renewal of wedding vows so Jane and I were able to renew our vows today at the Church of Cana - unbelievable. Fr. Jerome was awesome as the short service include opening prayers, reading of the Gospel passage of the wedding feast of Cana, the renewal of vows, the blessings and exchange of rings and a final blessing. It was very, very, very moving! I have included a picture of Jane and I renewing our vows today.
So a remarkable, very moving day today as we begin to literally walk in the places in which Jesus Christ himself walked. Tomorrow we are off the Mount of Beatitudes (Sermon on the Mount, Capernaum (home to Peter, Andrew, James, John and Matthew) and Tabgha, which is where Jesus fed the 5000 with two fish and loaves of bread! We will celebrate mass in a church adjacent to the Sea of Galilee.
An amazing day - Happy Father's Day to all
Given the nature of our day tomorrow our daily intention will be for all people in the world who currently are experiencing hunger (spiritual hunger and/or physical hunger)!
God bless you
PS - If you would like to see more pictures from the past few days you can access Jane's Facebook page by clicking on this link and scrolling down to see her pictures
Here are pictures from Jane's Facebook page
We started at the Church of the Annunciation - I could write pages about this church and all that is a part of its history. Most importantly the church is built around the home of our Blessed Mother where we she was visited by the Angel Gabriel. The childhood home of Jesus is visibly present in one of the current side altars. It was humbling beyond belief to sit, look, reflect and pray in the same location that little Jesus called "home" as a young boy. A picture is attached at the bottom of this blog entry.
There is also a neat connection to this church and Angelo Cardinal Roncalli. In 1959 Pope John XXIII commissioned a new church to be built on this site (around the home of Mary and the church that currently stood there.) The church was built and eventually consecrated by his successor Pope Paul VI.
Countries from around the world have contributed to the church by having their own ethnic tribute/interpretation of Mary. So there are beautiful pieces of work of Mary from all over the world and they are breathtaking.
We then went literally next door to the Church of St. Joseph, which was built over the top of his carpentry workshop. We went to mass in this church and it was beautiful. The mass was in Arabic so we did not understand much. But therein lies some of the beauty of the universal church in that we clearly understood the Eucharist. What a humbling, beautiful experience to celebrate mass in the Church of St. Joseph on the celebration of Father's Day back home. A picture at the bottom of this blog entry shows one of the most beautiful stained glass pieces I have ever seen - it is Mary and Jesus showing such tender love and care for an ailing, dying Joseph.
Next we traveled to the eastern border of Israel where it shares a border with Jordan to view the National Park of Bet She'an. This is one of the world's best preserved Roman cities. I cannot imagine a better preserved Roman city in the world than we saw today. I have been to the Forum in Rome multiple times and this preservation today was incredible in terms of the unbelievable condition in which so much of this city has been maintained. The amphitheater was INCREDIBLE. Over 2000 years old and still all in original form and amazing. And we think it unbelievable in the states when we have a venue that is 100 years old. There is a picture of the amphitheater at the end of today's blog. It does not do it justice but at least gives you an idea of just how well preserved this area is.
As we traveled on the highway on our way to Cana we drove past the Mountain of the Transfiguration! Unfortunately, our tour did not include a stop at the top of this mountain but it was amazing to see the mountain and visualize this incredible event. The Franciscans now have a church at the top of this mountain. I have included at the bottom of the blog a picture of this mountain.
To end our day today we finished in Cana at the location where Christ performed his first miracle of turning water into wine. It is very hard to put into words what it is like to be walking in these areas in which you know the Savior of the world has walked. We had a couple in our tour group who had arranged with the local priest to renew their wedding vows today in the small side chapel of the Church of Cana. He was a wonderful, jovial priest from Ghana. He invited any of the married couples in the group to also participate in the renewal of wedding vows so Jane and I were able to renew our vows today at the Church of Cana - unbelievable. Fr. Jerome was awesome as the short service include opening prayers, reading of the Gospel passage of the wedding feast of Cana, the renewal of vows, the blessings and exchange of rings and a final blessing. It was very, very, very moving! I have included a picture of Jane and I renewing our vows today.
So a remarkable, very moving day today as we begin to literally walk in the places in which Jesus Christ himself walked. Tomorrow we are off the Mount of Beatitudes (Sermon on the Mount, Capernaum (home to Peter, Andrew, James, John and Matthew) and Tabgha, which is where Jesus fed the 5000 with two fish and loaves of bread! We will celebrate mass in a church adjacent to the Sea of Galilee.
An amazing day - Happy Father's Day to all
Given the nature of our day tomorrow our daily intention will be for all people in the world who currently are experiencing hunger (spiritual hunger and/or physical hunger)!
God bless you
PS - If you would like to see more pictures from the past few days you can access Jane's Facebook page by clicking on this link and scrolling down to see her pictures
Here are pictures from Jane's Facebook page
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