Capernum & The Sea of Galilee
Greetings
Another scorcher here in the Holy Land - the sun, heat and travel can wear you down pretty quickly.
Despite the challenges of the heat it was another awesome experience today.
We started our day at the Mount of Beatitudes, which was one of the first times that Jesus publicly started to state some of the tenets of his beliefs when he delivered the Beatitudes to the throngs gather on that day. This was done on a mound overlooking the great Sea of Galilee (which is really a good sized lake). Pope John Paul visited this same site in 1990 and spoke before over 100,000 youths. The Franciscan church and retreat center that are here are beyond beautiful!
Our entire day was in the general vicinity of the beautiful Sea of Galilee as we next stopped at Tagbha to visit the site at which Jesus fed the 5000 with two fish and five loaves of . From there we went to Magdala which is right on the shores of the Sea of Galilee where we celebrated mass in a simple yet gorgeous church that overlooks the Sea of Galilee. The altar of the church is fashioned in the shape of a fishing boat similar to what would have been used in the time of the apostles. I have included a picture at the end of the blog. I have never worshiped in a more beautiful, serene place where during the actual liturgy you are looking at the very body of water on which Jesus walked.
As noted earlier it was another nice, sunny day in the Holy Land so the waters on the Sea of Galilee were calm when we actually stepped foot in it after lunch. However, just a few hours later, the winds picked up and there were white caps on the lake. One could easily picture a storm creating some might challenging conditions on the lake that would scare the apostles.
We ate lunch at a restaurant right on the Sea of Galilee and had fresh fish, which was scrumptious.
Next we traveled around to the northern part of the Sea of Galilee to what was once the town of Capernum. While some things in the Holy Land are presumed to be the actual location of a historic site, in this case the archaeologists and historians have confirmed what was Peter's home in Capernum. There is an unbelievable excavation of the town of Capernum from over 2000 years ago that includes a portion of the town's synagogue along with some of the local's homes including that of Peter. Capernum was home to apostles Peter, Andrew, James, John and Matthew! I have included a picture of the excavation of Capernum at the end of the blog.
We finished our day just a very short distance away when we stepped foot into the Jordan River where Christ was baptized by John the Baptist. The Jordan River, while larger than a creek, is not any where as large as say the White River. I have included a picture at the end of this blog.
Tomorrow we leave northern Israel (Nazareth) and travel south to Bethlehem, Jericho and Jerusalem. It should be a bit interesting in that Bethlehem will be the first place we have visited that is under full Palestinian control. I look forward to sharing with you tomorrow what that is like and what if any difference we can tell between that and the others we have visited that have been under Jewish or Israeli Muslim control.
Given that tomorrow we are visiting the site of Christ's birth in Bethlehem I would like to lift up for our daily intention all pregnant women, their babies and the fathers of those babies. Please join me in praying for safe, healthy babies along with safe, healthy mothers, with a special prayer for all pregnant women who are considering an abortion for their child!
God bless - enjoy the pictures from today and remember you can access my wife Jane's facebook account for more pictures. The link is below!
https://www.facebook.com/jane.weisenbach
PS Having trouble getting my pictures to download; will try again in the morning before we leave for Bethlehem.
Another scorcher here in the Holy Land - the sun, heat and travel can wear you down pretty quickly.
Despite the challenges of the heat it was another awesome experience today.
We started our day at the Mount of Beatitudes, which was one of the first times that Jesus publicly started to state some of the tenets of his beliefs when he delivered the Beatitudes to the throngs gather on that day. This was done on a mound overlooking the great Sea of Galilee (which is really a good sized lake). Pope John Paul visited this same site in 1990 and spoke before over 100,000 youths. The Franciscan church and retreat center that are here are beyond beautiful!
Our entire day was in the general vicinity of the beautiful Sea of Galilee as we next stopped at Tagbha to visit the site at which Jesus fed the 5000 with two fish and five loaves of . From there we went to Magdala which is right on the shores of the Sea of Galilee where we celebrated mass in a simple yet gorgeous church that overlooks the Sea of Galilee. The altar of the church is fashioned in the shape of a fishing boat similar to what would have been used in the time of the apostles. I have included a picture at the end of the blog. I have never worshiped in a more beautiful, serene place where during the actual liturgy you are looking at the very body of water on which Jesus walked.
As noted earlier it was another nice, sunny day in the Holy Land so the waters on the Sea of Galilee were calm when we actually stepped foot in it after lunch. However, just a few hours later, the winds picked up and there were white caps on the lake. One could easily picture a storm creating some might challenging conditions on the lake that would scare the apostles.
We ate lunch at a restaurant right on the Sea of Galilee and had fresh fish, which was scrumptious.
Next we traveled around to the northern part of the Sea of Galilee to what was once the town of Capernum. While some things in the Holy Land are presumed to be the actual location of a historic site, in this case the archaeologists and historians have confirmed what was Peter's home in Capernum. There is an unbelievable excavation of the town of Capernum from over 2000 years ago that includes a portion of the town's synagogue along with some of the local's homes including that of Peter. Capernum was home to apostles Peter, Andrew, James, John and Matthew! I have included a picture of the excavation of Capernum at the end of the blog.
We finished our day just a very short distance away when we stepped foot into the Jordan River where Christ was baptized by John the Baptist. The Jordan River, while larger than a creek, is not any where as large as say the White River. I have included a picture at the end of this blog.
Tomorrow we leave northern Israel (Nazareth) and travel south to Bethlehem, Jericho and Jerusalem. It should be a bit interesting in that Bethlehem will be the first place we have visited that is under full Palestinian control. I look forward to sharing with you tomorrow what that is like and what if any difference we can tell between that and the others we have visited that have been under Jewish or Israeli Muslim control.
Given that tomorrow we are visiting the site of Christ's birth in Bethlehem I would like to lift up for our daily intention all pregnant women, their babies and the fathers of those babies. Please join me in praying for safe, healthy babies along with safe, healthy mothers, with a special prayer for all pregnant women who are considering an abortion for their child!
God bless - enjoy the pictures from today and remember you can access my wife Jane's facebook account for more pictures. The link is below!
https://www.facebook.com/jane.weisenbach
PS Having trouble getting my pictures to download; will try again in the morning before we leave for Bethlehem.
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