Farewell

Well, it's hard to believe that our pilgrimage is over. We just made it through security (no thanks to the guidebooks I printed and the Dead Sea salts that we bought...for some reason those items raised security suspicions!).

BUT, before we made it this far we had yet another blessed day, this time outside the walls of Jerusalem.

We started the day with an early breakfast then a long drive to the town of Nazareth. This amazing city was Christ's home for approximately 30 years of His earthly life. Our first stop was the Church of the Annunciation and the well of the Panagia inside. This is where she received the greeting of Archangel Gabriel and she was told that she would bear a Son. We read the Gospel account as well as the version of the account from the Protevangelium of James, sang the hymn from the feast, as well as Ti Ipermaho. It is in this place that we reflect on the obedience of the Panagia and the power of her call.

After boarding the bus we were treated to the Nazarene version of baklava that was absolutely delicious.

Next, we drove to Cana of Galilee to the Church that is on the site of the first miracle of Christ. There we learned that while Christ was attending the wedding of Simon the Zealot and turned the water into wine at the intercession of the Theotokos. Simon the Zealot became a disciple.

In commemoration of that miracle and how Christ blessed the wedding there, we had a small service on the grounds of the church and prayed for the married people on our trip and those back home as well.

After that we made an even longer journey into the middle of the desert where we had the blessing to visit the fourth century monastery of St. Gerasimos of the Jordan. He is an amazing saint that ended up befriending a lion by helping it remove a thorn from its paw. Appropriate to this story is the mosaic on the floor of the main church depicting how before the fall of Adam and Eve that we lived peacefully with wild animals. The other amazing aspect of this monastery is the cave below ground where the Theotokos nursed the infant Christ on their escape to Egypt.

We met a very special elderly lady who lives in Germany and volunteers her time several months of the year to the well-being of the monastery. She was very kind and welcoming.

This was the last place of pilgrimage and we had a tearful farewell to our amazing guide, Yani. We were truly blessed to be led by such a spiritual man who is an Orthodox Christian living in Jerusalem. The whole group hopes that he will come to visit us in New York.

We then packed our bags, had one last dinner then ventured off to the airport.

On a personal note, I feel extremely blessed to have realized a dream to visit the Holy Land and walk in the footsteps of Christ. I apologize to anyone for any mistakes or oversights I may have made in this blog, but all the entries were made after long days of touring. I also wanted to add many more pictures, but the data connections I had were spotty at best, leading to extremely long uploading (20 minutes a picture!).

I plan to share more pictures via facebook, so if you haven't done so, feel free to "friend" me.

In closing, I thank God for such a wonderful, uplifting, and spiritual experience. I look forward to my return to the Holy Land knowing now what to expect.

Please pray for peace in this beautiful place and the safe return of all of our group.

I can't wait to see my St. Paul's family this Sunday!!

Signing off...

God bless,

+Fr. Luke