Today is day one of the Catholic Digest Holy Land Pilgrimage! I am very blessed to be on this trip and I will be blogging through out the week to give you a firsthand experience of all the holy sites.
All the Catholic Digest pilgrims arrived in Tel Aviv today and were greeted by Steve and Janet Ray of The Footprints of God pilgrimages. Even though we were tired from our flight, Steve and Janet made us feel so welcome and excited to be in the Holy Land!
Next, we boarded a charter bus and traveled to the Sea of Galilee for the opening Mass of our trip. Mass was celebrated at St. Peter’s Church in Tiberias.
St. Peter’s is a “newer” Church from the Crusader period. It was restored in 1870 and is the present-day church of St. Peter on the lake shore.
We read special readings at Mass that were relevant to St. Peter and to our location at the Sea of Galilee. During the homily Fr. Frans invited us to look at the altar mosaic of Peter as a fisherman. Fr. Frans Berkhout, from the diocese of St. Petersburg, Fla. pointed out the look of surprise on Peter’s face, as though he asked the Lord, “who me?” You want me to lead your Church?
Father Frans reminds us that God has a special calling for each of us. We might think we are unworthy of that task, and like Peter, will ask God: “who me?” But we must always be ready to do the holy will of God.
Please count on my prayers for all the subscribers of Catholic Digest. I look forward to sharing with you the many blessings of this trip.