"Nothing
can bring people to Jerusalem than the desire to see and touch the
places where Jesus was physically present and to be able to experience
the Journey He went through."
My wife and I decided to go to the Holy Lands in November 2017.
The decision was made 1 year ago when a pilgrimage tour to the Holy
Lands was suggested by our Catholic neighborhood group.
It was a right time for my wife who had recovered from cancer 5 years
ago and a knee operation 2 years ago.
She was eager to travel again having regained the function of her knee.
Traveling in a holy site usually requires a lot of walking especially if
you want to follow the journey of Jesus as He travels through mountains
and hills preaching and performing miracles every where that He went.
The last time we traveled to a Holy Site was 10 years ago with a trip to
Italy to see the Vatican, St Peter Basilica, Asissi and other sites in
Italy.
That also took a lot of walking through the cobbled streets of Rome.
Vatican City, officially State of the Vatican City is a landlocked
sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within
the city of Rome.
At about 44 hectares (108.7 acres), it is the smallest independent
nation in the world.
Vatican City can be said to be the governmental capital of the Catholic
Church.
Vatican City is where St. Peter's Basilica, the Apostolic Palace, the
Sistine Chapel, and museums were built, along with various other
buildings on the west bank of the Tiber river.
It is also the official residence of the Pope.
Before that we took a trip to Lourdes to see the miracle water baths.
Our Lady of Lourdes is a Roman Catholic title of the Blessed Virgin
Mary venerated in honor of the Marian apparitions that reportedly
occurred in 1858 in the vicinity of Lourdes in France.
The first of these is the apparition of 11 February 1858, when 14-year
old Bernadette Soubirous told her mother that a "lady" spoke to her.
This journey is going to the Holy Land where Jesus Christ was born,
worked His miracles , preached His Beatitudes and taught us how to pray
to God, died on the Cross and was resurrected on Easter Sunday.
He also built the biggest religion Christianity in the world (2.4
billion) in 2012 and had followers all over the world.
With help of our Spiritual Director Father Augustinus, our local tour
guide Angela and the Israel Catholic tour guide we managed to go through
the whole life of Jesus from His birth and His death and resurrection
The bible came alive to us from the places we went, Bethlehem, Nazareth,
Sea of Galilee, Jerusalem and the Garden of Gethsame where he prayed in
agony until his sweats became blood.
We saw the place that He was born (Nativity) and His Death (Holy
Sepulcher) and Resurrection.
TABLE OF CONTENT
Introduction
Chapter 1 His Life and Death based on the Gospels
Chapter 2 Visitations, Bethlehem and the Birth (Nativity)
Chapter 3 Nazareth and St Joseph's House
Chapter 4 Birthplace of Mary
Chapter 5 Cana the first Miracle
Chapter 6 Mount Of Beatitudes
Chapter 7 St Peter Primacy
Chapter 8 Sea of Galilee
Chapter 9 Magdala and Bethsaida
Chapter 10 Transfiguration of Jesus
Chapter 11 John the Baptist and Jordan River
Chapter 12 Birthplace of Mary
Chapter 13 Church of Flagellation and Jesus footprint
Chapter 14 Old Jerusalem and the Wailing Wall
Chapter 15 Mount of Olives
Chapter 16 The Agony of Jesus and Holy Hour
Vhapter 17 Churches at Bethany
Chapter 18 Dead Sea and the Dead Sea Scrolls
Chapter 19 Stations of the Cross and the Holy Sepulcher
Chapter 20 Model of Jerusalem (Israel Museum)
Chapter 21 Shrine