He is Alive!

My dear friends, I am here to tell you that Jesus is not dead but alive. We have seen him with our own eyes. We have touched him with our own hands and tongue. We have consumed him into our bodies. Jesus has risen and we are witnesses to these things. If every I was in awe in my life, this morning was one of those moments. We awoke and traveled the way of Jesus with his cross to the calvalry which is now inclosed in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. We were almost alone and were able to touch and kiss the very rock upon which held the cross of our Lord and which his prescious blood fell upon. We then descended to reverence the pilar which Jesus was scurged at. We viewed the crack in the earth from the earth quake that took place when Jesus gave up his last breath. We then celebrated Eucharist in and around the tomb. The tomb is very small, only big enough for a few people. The group remained on the outside while Deacon Ken, a priest from Milan and myself celebrated the Eucharist in the tomb. The Word was proclaimed and homily given outside the tomb and the consecration took place above the slab where he was laid. Clearly the power of the Lord was upon us. OOOOOOHHHHHHH did I mention that it was the high mass. There are masses said every 30 minutes there from 5-8 in the morning. However there is one mass that is the high mass in which the Franciscan Monks chant all the mass parts. Its 45 minutes and YES WE CELEBRATED THAT MASS! WOW! We were all in tears as we declared victory over sin and death. There was one part in the Liturgy when I come out of the tomb with the consecrated Eucharist and elevate him to declare "Behold the Lamb of God, Behold him who takes away the sins of the world, happy are those called to the supper of the Lamb." Words cannot express the joy and jubilation of these words. These words are a declaration that Jesus is not dead but alive. He has risen and is alive among us. Alleluia is our battle cry. After an emotional celebration and internal felt experience of the Resurection, we had breakfast and visited the pool of bethesda where Jesus visited. We also visited the site where St. Steven was martyred. All in all it was a good morning. I feel alive in every way, truly a witness to light overcoming darkness. Those of you who are reading this, I assure you that there is no darkness in your life that Jesus cannot overcome. There is no sin that he cannot forgive. There is no place that he will not pursue you into inorder to give you life. His words to me at Calvary and in the tomb were: "I Love You." Everything he did was out of love for me and you. He shows us the depth of his love in the cross, in the tomb. He gave everything up for us. We have much to be thankful for and our life is how we thank him.

Love Freely Chosen

I write in awe and great pause at the mysteries encountered today.Throughout, the theme of Jesus freely choosing to suffer and die for us resounded. We began the day early with mass on the Mount of Olives. The altar was on the rock where Jesus sweat tears out in the midst of the intense pressure he felt. Our guide shared his take that this was the peek of Our Lord's passion. It was here that he was most in anguish and here that he chose not to back down and to go forward with giving his life to his Father and for the salvation of the world. It was a solemn and deeply intense place of prayer as we all were able to bend down on knees and kiss the rock after mass during personal prayer. I prayed for our parishes that we may persevere in the face of opposition, tests and trials. This is the first place Jesus actualy prays for himself to the Father..revealing his humanity and level of suffering. We walked out of Church among the 2100 year old olive trees in the Garden. If only they could speak to tell us what they saw. A little FYI, Jesus goes to the Garden to say YES to the Father to redeem the NO Adam said in the "Garden" of Eden. We then traveled to a lookout over the entire "Old City" which is the city in the time of Jesus' day. From there we were able to see the proximity of the Mt. of Olives, the Kidron Valley, Bethany, the place of accusation, the last supper, Herod's place and place of crucifiction. Please let me explain to you that this was truly heart moving to see how far and how long they pushed Jesus throughout the city while he was scurged, bleeding, etc. We then visited Pater Nostra where Jesus taught the disciples the Our Father. There is a cave there where Jesus taught the prayer, believed to be the same place where he ascended. We prayed the Lord's prayer there. The Church of the dormition was next. This is where Mary fell asleep. The story is told that she fell asleep and a grave was made for her. The whole time, her body smelled like roses. On the eighth day, her body disapeared . Mary 's presence in my own heart confirmed without a doubt the significance of this place. We all prayed a decade of the rosary to Our Lady in the lower church. To add to the depth of this moment, the upper room was only some 80 feet away. Here we entered a room that was not the original but one built on top of several. There were several countries there praying. We prayed a while realizing all the many mysteries of the early church: the last supper, washing of the feet, Judas' betrayal, the appearance of Jesus after his rising, appearance to Thomas and Pentecost. I pause in awe of just thinking about the significance of this place. On my heart the whole time was a question to Jesus: "What was on your heart as you ate this meal with your friends?" We had prayed on the Mt. of Olives where he sweat blood. His anquish must have been on his heart at the meal. Yet he chooses still to love in the midst of the darkness of betrayal. He chooses to love and show an example of being a servant (he gets up and washes their feet). This was personaly moving to me because the priesthood was confired upon the disciples in this place as well as the institution of the Eucharist. We ended the day at the Church of St. Peter in Galicantue.This is the sight where Jesus is put on trial before the council of the high priests who put him in their prison. They floged Jesus 39 times. Then they lowered Jesus with a rope, his hands tied, into a cistern where the water was up to his waist so he couldn't sit down. Reflect on Jesus, cut with open wounds in this dirty water overnight, cold and tired from the beating.
We all stood in this cistern and remained in silence and prayer. We ended the day here in preparation for tomorrow. We will wake up early 4:45 am and travel the Via Dolorosa (the way of the cross). Then we celebrate mass in the tomb of our Lord. Good night...its been full, powerful, awe filled day. Thanks be to God Fr. Michael.

Angels we have heard on high

We begin Tuesday with mass at the Shepherd's field. Here is wher the angels appeared to the poor shepherds tending their flock. We offered mass in a cave believed to had been used by the shepherd's at the time of our Lords birth. These shepherd would bring their flock into the cave and sleep at the entrance to protect against the wild animals that roamed the night. Mass was beautiful reflecting on the humiliy and simplicity of Jesus being born in a cave amongst farm animals. This impressed upon me the great accessibility Jesus comes in to offer his life for all and not just some. From here we visited the place of our Lord's birth. This sight in the possession of the Greek Orthodox, Armenian and the Roman Catholic Church. There was a long line of pilgrims eager to touch the sight of our Lord's birth. The wait was a prayerful reflection of Mary's heart and mind as she waited for the birth of her son. Hundereds of people filed in to just touch the spot in hopes that there prayers would be heard. This truly was a blessed moment for all of us. We sang "joy to the world" in the cave praying that peace and joy would resound in all points of the world that are desperate for peace. From here we visited the Catholic Church built adjacent to the church of the nativity. Under this church was the grotto of St. Joseph where he received the message from the angel to flee to Egypt for avoid the Herod's rath. This was a sight of many prayers for the parishs back home. I place all of the petitions I had from church on the place of birth and offered them up to God. How blessed we are to be here.

Overwhelmed with Mystery

O.K. We are back. I missed yesterday because of some complications with the hotel rooms. Lets pick up with the last two days as you can see from a few pictures. on 2-13-12 we first visited Magdala where Mary of Magdala is from. This is in very close proximity to the multiplication of the loaves spot and capernaum. Here we briefly talked about the close relationship Mary had with Jesus and how important the woman were in Jesus' public ministry. Mary's father owned a fishing fleet of around 264 boats in Magdala which made him a wealthy man. This would mean that Mary also had money to help fund Jesus' mission. We then visited the spot of the multiplication of loaves and fish. This was very close to the sermon on the mount (a half mile away...if you recall that Jesus preached to 5,000 there and they must have been hungry). There is a beautiful Church erected over this sight with beautiful mosaics dating back to the 4th Century. It was clear to see the proximity of the sermon from the miracle of the multiplicaton. These would have happened in clear view of the beautiful Sea of Galilee. We celebrated mass on Mt. Tabor. Yes, the mountain where the Lord was transfigured before Peter, James and John. This mountain is 1,900 ft above sea level and is certain to be the one that Jesus was transfigure on. There is a beautiful gold mosaic above the main altar that is radiant gold with the light coming through the windows of the Church. We sang and had a deeply moving celebration of Eucharist here as we realized why the Lord revealed his Glory. This event took place 8 days after the question to Peter of "Who do you say that I am?" Perhaps Jesus was not completely satisfied with their conviction so he pulls his disciples up the mountain that they would be convinced of his glory. Jesus would leave Mt. Tabor to go into Jerusaleum to be crucified. We finished the day off with the Church of the visitation. Here is where Mary traveled from Nazareth to spend some time with Elizabeth who was found with child. Elizabeth was 69 yrs old and 6 months pregnant. Here on the wall is the Magnificate of Mary which is written on the wall in most of the languages of the world. Elizabeth lived in a house, not a cave because Zachariah was a high priest (they were very well off). Mary presence was very palpable here,calling us into deeper humility and faith in the Father that in him all things are possible. We ended the day traveling into Bethlehem and having a nice meal.

Jesus' Ministry

Today we set out to encounter Jesus in his public ministry. We began our rather windy day with an early morning visit of our Lord at the Primacy of Peter. To help you enter in, if you read John 21:1-14 you will be familiar with Jesus asking Peter "do you love me?". We prayed on this very sight as the waves rolled in on a beautiful morning. The shores were filled with cround up shells from thousands of years ago. Peter's remorse was palpable there as we were all internally able to associate with Peter who had denied Jesus 3 times. We learned the significance of the 153 fish was because there are 153 species of fish in the sea. The number represents hoew Jesus' gospel is for all peoples. We moved from there to caperneaum were Jesus spent most of his public ministry. Here is where Peter's house was (the site of Jesus healing his mother in law. There is an octagon church excavated which became an early church for the Christians. Caperneaum was a prime site for Jesus to preach his message because it was a major passage way for caravans to going north and south. People would hear of his word and share it to great distances. Some 50 yards away is the synagogue where Jesus gave his bread of life discourse in John 6. We next celebrated mass in the mount of beatitudes. This is where Jesus Preached this sermon to over 5,000 men not including childrenthe acoustics are phenomenal and Jesus could have been easily heard From a boat or from the lower level of the hill. After a nice relaxing lunch we headed up the mountains to Caesarea Philippi where Peter made his first confession that Esus was the Christ. Here There is a huge rock face that holds the sight for ancient worship of foreign God like Zeus, pan,hermia , etc. there is a whole in which sacrifices were thrown into which also is a natural water spring. It was thought that if the sacrifice didn't come out with blood in the water then it was accepted by the god. Well after seeing this thank the Lord we believe in him. There were Rock niches all along the face of the wall where statues to gods were placed for worship. Interesting enough, this natural spring is a tributary into the Jordanfrom which Jesus was baptized. We all renewed our baptismal vows here inunison with Peter's declaration that Jesus was the Christ. All were overjoyed and playful with the renewed spirit of the natural refreshing spring and the renewal of spirit. We ended the day with a refreshing dinner and relaxing evening overlooking the sea of Galilee.