Today marks the end of our pilgrimage. “Welcome home,” Youssef
told us when we landed in Tel-Aviv over a week ago. Well, now we’re leaving our
“home” we found in the Holy Land to head back home to Chicago.
I firmly believe that every trip changes you – the people you
meet, the places you visit, the experiences you have- but this trip has changed
me in ways I cannot even explain – and maybe in ways I do not even know yet.
I have visited places where Jesus lived – where he walked and
prayed. Now we’ve walked and prayed there too. It sounds silly but when we
stood in the Jordan River, we touched the same water as Jesus did… 2,000 years
later. We stood in Gethsemane with olive trees that were alive at the time of
Jesus (the “silent witnesses” of that night). We prayed the “Our Father” and
the “Magnificat” in their original locations.
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| After renewing our baptismal vows at the Jordan River |
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| The "silent witnesses" - olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane |
The tourist traps and sights were overwhelming (and annoying)
at times, but the beauty of the sites – and the presence of the masses far
exceeded my expectations for the trip.
I wrote special intentions
for the Wailing Wall, and I offered up many prayers at the sites. I know God
will answer them… in his own time… and in his own way…
~ ~ ~
And this trip… How did I come to be here at this moment? Well,
that takes a lot of connecting the dots and going back in time…
That moment – that experience that felt like a failure –
triggered a series of events (like Dominoes) that helped me to this moment in
time – right now at an airport in Tel-Aviv.
Because I did not test out of Spanish, I enrolled in my first
Spanish class. My teacher saw a talent and passion in me that I couldn’t even
see myself. Because of that passion, I studied in Costa Rica and grew to love
the Latin American culture. Because of this love, I wanted to serve a Latino
community when I applied to Ace. When I graduated ACE, I sought out a similar
school to my school from Kansas City (OLU). I found St. Ann which brought me to
Chicago… and brought me to the vibrant St. Clement community… The rest, my
friends, is history…
~ ~ ~
Landed Chicago… Welcome home… Continued prayers for the safety of those in the Middle East, especially during these times of unrest…
I came across your blogspot today. Fr. James Martin SJ fills my FaceBook notification box with his postings, but I was only dimly aware of his trip to the Holy Land. Your journal is written so well that reading it became a spiritual journal for me. You write how powerful is the experience of standing and walking in exactly the same places as Jesus. It is powerful when you step aside from the here and now to bring historical "knowing" to consciousness: As you stand in the Jordan River you can almost see Jesus being baptized there. Such historical "knowing" can be connected to a "knowing" in faith the Real Presence of the Risen Christ in the Eucharist. It can be connected to "knowing" in faith that we, our acquaintances and the children we serve share in the divinity of Christ, as Jesus humbled himself to share in our humanity - as the priest is directed to pray silently at the Communion in the mass. Historical "knowing" involves deliberate thinking and imagining, almost seeing Jesus on the Jordan. "Knowing" the spiritual truths of the closeness of God to his children also involves deliberate thinking and imagining. Retreats and pilgrimages are specially structured times for openness to grace. You were blessed this summer.
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