By Father Chris Martin, Director of Vocations

When preparing for our pilgrimage, we prepared for many things. Having Jerusalem buried under a snow storm was not one of them. We are close to six inches and counting. No tour companies are operating and all the restaurants, shops and businesses are closed. You can see the few Israeli’s brave enough to be outside taking advantage of this historic snow fall by throwing snowballs and running around like children. It’s really beautiful. So we are without a guide as we will try to venture through the snow covered city on our own.

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By Father Chris Martin, Director of Vocations

Yesterday we journeyed from Galilee to Jerusalem. We stopped at what some archaeologists call the oldest city on earth, Jericho. A city of great promise for the nation of Israel as they ended their forty years of wandering in the desert, this 8,000 year old town (that’s how old some of the fortifications are) located near the Jordan river would certainly have looked like a land of milk and honey since it is able to grow fruits and crops.

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By Father Chris Martin, Director of Vocations

If you stand on the Mount of Beatitudes and look north along the shore line, a couple of miles up you will see the remnants of a small town of great importance; Capernaum. In Hebrew the name means “town of Nahum” possibly referring to the Old Testament prophet, but one cannot be sure. What you can be sure of though, is that this is the town Jesus made his home during his public ministry. In fact, though it was well known that Jesus was from Nazareth, Capernaum is referred to as his home.

Several chapters of each of the four Gospels recount events that took place here. Multiple healing miracles including the raising of Jairus’ daughter and the healing of the centurion’s slave took place here. But the two primary sites that one visits are the remains of the house of Peter (Peter’s mother-in-law) which became the first church in Christianity, and the remains of a fifth century synagogue built on the foundation of the original. It was here that Jesus would sit in the chair of Moses and teach.

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By Father Chris Martin, Director of Vocations

The weather here has been beautiful. The only downside is that the there has been a consistent haze over the Sea of Galilee, which gives it a mystical appearance, but doesn’t allow us to see clearly across the water to the opposite shore. If we could, then we would be able to see from the Mount of Beatitudes our afternoon destination of Bethsaida.

Bethsaida is a five thousand year old city that sits at the northeastern tip of the Sea of Galilee, and marks the far tip of what is referred to as the “Gospel triangle” which is formed by running imaginary lines from the nearby cities of Capernaum and Chorazin. The vast majority of Jesus’ three year public ministry took place in this small area. Unfortunately, because they all eventually showed a lack of faith in Jesus, he cursed them with the words:
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By Father Chris Martin, Director of Vocations

Today we walked twenty minutes down the Mount of Beatitudes to the shore of the Sea of Galilee.

Specifically, we went to the site known as Seven Springs ( Ma-gadan, present day Tabgha) where natural spring water flows into the Sea of Galilee, making it a prime spot for fishing. It was at this remote fisherman’s spot that Jesus called his disciples to drop their nets and follow him, here that he returned to this “deserted place” to get away from the crowds, here that he performed his first multiplication of loaves and fish miracle, here that he walked on the water to save his friends, and here that he appeared to the disciples after the Resurrection and asked Peter “Do you love me?” three times.

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