Journey to HolyLand

Our Pilgrimage

Ahmadi church - Our Lady of Arabia

the pilgrim starts here

day before our journey...  19 of Oct.

(Oct. 20-27, 2012)

Journey to Holy Land

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1st day: Amman - Oct. 20

mount Nebo & the bronze serpent. 

Jordan view of promise land

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 we also had our first Mass

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climbing the mountain top

Mt. Nebo

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2nd day: going to Nazareth - Oct. 21

Jericho - the oldest city in the world

1,300 feet below sea level

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the Sycamore tree - Zacchaeus story

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Mt. of Temptation. qarantal monastery -

 

 

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Jordan valley -

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hotel - Nazareth Plaza Hotel (nazareth liit)

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3rd day: going to Nazareth - Oct. 22

first stop

Mt. Tabor the place of Transfiguration (church)

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Jordan river. Renewal of baptism...

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Boat ride at the sea of Galilee along Jordan river.
Fish of St. Peter

St. Peter's fish

 

 

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Capernaum


Church of Heptapegon
the Judeo-Christians of Capernaum venerated a large rock upon which Jesus is said to have laid the bread and fish before He fed the 5 thousand.

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the Beatitude Mountain - Eucharist / multiplication of loaves

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Capernaum town / primacy of St. Peter
(tabgha St. Peter's house)

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4th day: Jerusalem - Oct. 23

City of Nazareth

Well of the virgin Mary

house of Mama Mary

Annunciation church

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church dedication to St. Joseph.

Underground wells and as mason carpenter

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town of Cana. 

Place of the first miracle. 

Wedding at Cana

and the renewal of vow

(wed. 9am)

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Going to Jeruzalem

-11.30am after wedding at Cana

the Garden Dome @ around 12 noon.

passing by Haifa Industrial Center after their port

the center of German colony (haifa bahai) 

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and then 

we stopped at Stella Maris overlooking terrace

passing by Mediterannean Sea

at the foot of Mt. Carmel

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reached qesarryya or Caesaria

Roman ruins where crusaders were defeated

saw the crusader walls after lunch went around

the great temple of Caesaria build by King Herod

After watching their documentary in a small movie theater we saw the ancient monument dated back from 32 BC that started only as a dream of a great king to create a great city where he named it as his own.

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3:30 pm we reached the Telaviv the City of the Youth they just celebrated its centennial from 1909. The city was busy unlike where we came from the past 3 days the place is plain and not mountainous. As we entered after 10 min. we pass by the train station where we entered the traffic for almost an hour.

We passed by the Telaviv without taking the pictures for we are advised not to take photographs... then went out the traffic heading to Bethlehem.

Bethlehem 4:45 pm

as we were entering the town we passed by two tunnels that went inside the hill now they call the new Jerusalem or west bank. They called it Northern part because of walls & its barb wires. Then another traffic. We almost reach Bethlehem's business area full of cars in the street of weekdays for it's only Tuesday. A small street leading to mountainous again that's closer to each other unlike the mountains in Nazareth that are far from each other. It's only 5 pm but it's almost dark, the driver is getting tired and impatient bout the traffic. We descended and ascended again to the hilltop heading to Bethlehem souvenir stores.

We're still climbing up and down the hills of the town proper. Their population mentioned by our guide Teev is roughly 500k. After some time we entered another check point and saw the Wall of Jerusalem with the length of 750km walls and barb wires. The small and lone gate is close during midnight for safety purposes. We also noticed the large art exhibit as graffiti & paintings against the wall. Then passed by the gate saying 'Welcome to Bethlehem' entered the Manger street and the Nativity church but went straight to the shopping stop before we go to the hotel. So we stopped at the Angels Souvenir store for some shopping where i bought some packages of rosaries made of olive tree. After an hour of shopping we headed to David Mountain hotel at around 6:45pm and had our dinner by 7:15pm, felt sleepy around 9pm then woke up again as early as 3am as  we always did in our last two hotels. 

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5th day: Bethlehem - Oct. 24

Wake up time 5:30 am then breakfast 6am. by 6:45 to 7am we should be in the bus going to the site. This is the heart of our pilgrimage the station of the cross - Via Dolorosa for some reflections and meditations. But before we went to the Mt. of Olives or the Gethsemane garden following the timeline of the passion death & the resurrection (Gehusaphat valley) starting from Palm Sunday to the Resurrection and the Mountain or the church of the second coming of Jesus.

We climbed at Palm Sunday entrance to Jerusalem then passed by the garden of Gethsemane where we took one group picture down the church with the Mosaic of Byzantine atop the Mt. Zion. Then walked to the Way of the Cross down the Holy Pit, a dungeon and the House of Caipas (Ps. 88) then as we were going down again you can see almost the whole view of Jeruzalem where Jesus wept when he saw the city and his prophecy of its destruction. We also entered the Upper Room where they celebrated the last supper and where they experienced the Pentecost or the descend of the Holy Spirit. We finished on top of the hill and see the panoramic view of Jerusalem at 11:45am then went for lunch until 1 pm. and continued our journey...

Entered the Pater Noster site (the prayer of Our Father)

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We're heading now to Via Dolorosa after the Garden of Getsemane 

and we'll be walking for almost 4 hours as said by our guide..

beautiful Garden of Gethsamane..

the Upper Room...

the Temptation of Jesus

entering the Holy Pit...

passing by another Station...

inside the walls of the Station of the Cross where we'll celebrate the Eucharist

this is our 3rd Station.

some of the Station of the Cross that we passed by...

we had another group shot for remembrance...
after the end of the station before entering the tomb of Jesus

entering the center of the earth...

the entrance Tomb of Jesus...

the Wailing Wall was also a surprised for me. i was not expecting that it is open to all kinds of faith and even to tourists. had my strange experience of touching the walls and even praying there or mingling with the jews ;)) & wearing their cap. Their ruined Temple of Holy of holies?

the journey was really amazing and wonderful. a lifetime experience...

the first station was inside the wall with the small monastery or rooms then we went out the small road where they said Jesus has trodden. After 2nd station we entered one beautiful altar inside the monastery along the walls of the way of the cross to celebrate the Eucharist. After the mass we made shortcuts along the stations to finished our time-frame so we can go to all the programs of the pilgrims.


One great significant encounter was the end of the way. The Holy Tomb where father Fred said that it is the center of the earth if not the universe where Jesus was laid on the tomb and resurrected. A great experience indeed even as i was a little bit scandalized by the way outside the way of the cross as we encountered the noisy and shouting business center and busy life as reality bites while we were praying along the roads, the irony that the road was mostly own by the muslim brothers that in effect it is considered as holy as it should along the Wailing Wall as the former Jewish temple called holy of hollies...


But forget about the crowds, forget about the busy noisy businesses of the residence and the dangers to be lost among the group that almost happened to me as i was waiting for the last person walking from the group. It's really the central journey of faith that really touched me with this beautiful pilgrimage to the very center of our faith where our Lord was born, lived, suffered, died and rise again.. truly it was once in a life time experience where hope reinforced us all with all our prayers including our requests and petitions along all those wonderful and significant sites that strengthen our love for God and the people around us as we love our very own self. and our redemption saving us in own helplessness before we are merge into the water of baptism saving us in our state-like-adam & eve's original sin :)) opening the walls of our self-destructive selves through his life passion death and resurrection... then truly the earth is the center of the universe in a theological point of view..

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6th day: Dead Sea - Oct. 25

Wake up call 5am

Breakfast 6 then lobby at 7 luggages for the bus.

6:19 am Starting the last day of the journey to Israel.

went to Nativity church... the marks of the nativity itself. 

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We proceed to St. Francis breast milk for mama Mary 

as one priest talked about the miracles of the powdered milk..

 St. Jeromes's original tomb..

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Then headed to shepherds cave also to celebrate mass. Passing by shepherd's fields. We have the mass.. a reflection too from the Word of God, "today the savior has been born to you" in the holy Eucharist and to be kept and treasure it in our heart..

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10:45 we finished the holy Eucharist. going now to Bethany,
passing by Lazarus, Martha and Mary's church. Now named Eizaria.

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Going to the dead sea our final destination inside Israel...

We crossed the valley at the edge of the cliff on zigzag road and reached Dead Sea at 1 pm for lunch. The place is 400m below the sea level. It's called dead sea because there's no normal sea creatures can lived there. The Kalia resort was beautiful with lots of tourists around as it is the peak season wit the most beautiful weather of 25 to 30c bright and blue sky of sunshine at its best. As we finished our lunch we started the mud bath turning our bodies into black. I was trying to dip the whole of my body but i just floated on the water mud. The small pool was slippery as we go up and swim into the beach. I was trying to swim freestyle but again my whole body just float as if i was on a floater. The lifeguard was advising the swimmers to face backward to avoid the salt water enter the eyes of the swimmers for it is painful and some safety purposes.

The experienced was nice and different especially when the eyes were touched by the seawater. We finished before 3 pm Israel time then headed to the border of Jordan for the exit.

We reached border called King Hussain of Allenby by 3:25pm and waited for more than 2 hours before we got out the boarder because of the problem of the bus at the other side affected by their Eid holidays as the bus offices were closed. then as we were transferring our luggage there was a little bit chaos as the porters didn't waited for us to check our things before they put them into the bus. So another 30min or more was wasted to double checked all the baggage.

We started our travel to Petra around 8pm then we stopped over a small restaurant for our dinner as our hotel advised us, cause their food court will be closed by late or after 12midnight. So we reached Oscar hotel past 2am.

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7th day: Petra - Oct. 26

Wake up call 7am breakfast at 8am then some briefing for the day program by 9am we headed to the great place.


Petra has Its great Historical background about the Arab world. Need more research of the place as it became one of the new 7 wonders of the earth...

9:25 we started descending the mountain heading for long walk or ride with either horse, donkey or buggy. The buggy he told us was simply a cart pull by the horse like chariots but with cover or like a small calesa i thought is was the motor cart.

So we started the walk by 10 past 10 as the sun shines on the clear blue sky. The place was sacred at it should because of the conception of a gods or some kind of mythology. It was a pagan communities with lots of strange stories and histories. A great small civilization that i really need to make a research to understand it more as i was really surprised with awe for its natural beauty and man made wonders the reason why it is being called the new 7 wonders of the world. I was not expecting it as big as i saw it where we walked almost 10 km back & forth, truly a wonderful world as we journeyed back to ancient past that really awe-struck the minutes and hours i entered it and really want to know the how, why and where about of this great place dated back 2200 years ago. An ancient arab tribes who originally came from arabian peninsula the Nabataeans as they were engaged in caravareening business. Petra simply means people who live on the rock - a rose-red city half as old as time. Much of its awesome, multicolored sandstone high mountain and high cliffs into which most of the celebrated tombs, facades, theaters and stairways are carved. Nature and architecture concur conferring a mythical aura to the site...

“ 

It seems no work of Man's creative hand,

by labour wrought as wavering fancy planned;

But from the rock as if by magic grown,

eternal, silent, beautiful, alone!

Not virgin-white like that old Doric shrine,

where erst Athena held her rites divine;

Not saintly-grey, like many a minster fane,

that crowns the hill and consecrates the plain;

But rose-red as if the blush of dawn,

that first beheld them were not yet withdrawn;

The hues of youth upon a brow of woe,

which Man deemed old two thousand years ago,

match me such marvel save in Eastern clime,

a rose-red city half as old as time.

” 

-John William Burgon

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PETRA