Arrived in Israel

We spent a large portion of our day up in the air. We were treated like kings on the eight hour flight to Germany: hot towels, a delicious beef and pasta dinner, and even free drinks. I thought I was having dinner at my parents house! We flew through the night and arrived in Frankfurt, Germany at six in the morning. Most of us have not had any sleep in the past 48 hours. Mother Mary is definitely granting us the virtues of patience and charity! You can sense and see the brotherly unity already and we haven't even begun our walk in the footsteps of our Lord. Our flight was delayed in Germany so it definitely allowed us to take time to observe the different religions represented throughout the airport. Jews, Muslims, Christians...all we needed was Pope Francis and we could have had some shawarma and an interesting interfaith dialogue. One of the most memorable moments of our travel time was seeing the devout Jewish people praying, dressed in their prayers shawls, and wearing their phylacteries which is a box worn by Jewish men containing a scroll of biblical texts as a reminder to keep the law. To see their devotion to prayer and God was simply inspiring and encouraging. No matter where they are they can give praise to God and that their prayer was not confined to a temple. So of course we too had to pull out our breviaries and give praise to God. We then gathered together at our gate to pray a rosary before departing for Israel.

We arrived in Tel Aviv at five in the evening and made our way over to the Sisters of Notre Dame in Ein Kerem where we will spend the next 8 nights. It's a beautiful place with an amazing overview of the city of Jerusalem. We shared dinner together and then celebrated Mass.

It's only day one and the Lord has already been working through our prayer and conversations with one another. We spoke about how being a pilgrim is different than being on vacation. This pilgrimage is not a time for us to kick back and relax but an opportunity to fall more deeply in love with our Lord and Savior. This requires work...hard work! It's not only worth the hard work but also extremely necessary. There is nothing worse than a priest who knows his theology but does not know Jesus. We've all just completed our first year in Theology studying the mystery of the Trinity and the beauty of the Scriptures. The theology has been given to us and now it's time to act. This is the goal and aim of our pilgrimage: to know Jesus and in coming to know him, to fall in love with him. Keep us in your prayers so that the Lord's will may be done in this pilgrimage and so that our hearts may be transformed into his. God bless you all.