Fr. Vince Celebrating Mass |
Father Edward
Celebrating Mass on Calvery |
We spent the first 5 days in Jerusalem and the last 3 days in Galilee, where Jesus dedicated 90% of his time during his years of public ministry. I've attached: a rapid glance of most of the places we visited in the document. But, below were the most personally significant places of the trip.
Top 4 in descending order:
4) Eremos Cave (near the Sea of Galilee): the likely location where Jesus would’ve spent long hours in solitude praying and communing with the Father in the Holy Spirit. As Scripture often mentions Jesus going off to a "deserted place to pray". Here I asked for the gift of prayer.
3) Nazareth: Church of the Annunciation: God, for the first time, touches down on earth... At Mary's home. Where, for the first time in history, God would've entered into space and time, taking on a human nature, being conceived in Mary's womb. Where Mary becomes the Ark of the Covenant;
where Mary becomes Mother of God.
Incredible.
2) Church of the Assumption: The place of my favorite Marian mystery. Mary's Assumption: the perfect bookend to the gratuitous grace of the Immaculate Conception. Mary has all merit for a life of perfect and total faithfulness to God... Here I asked for continual grace for heroic sanctity/grace of a holy death.
1) All the Places associate with Jesus' Passion: Holy Thursday through Good Friday. I knew ahead of time that these would be the most significant places for me. The Passion has been the subject of for the vast majority of my quiet prayer in the last year and a half.
1d) Upper Room: though we weren't able to spend much time, there were crowds: the significance of the place was not lost on me. The institution of the Priesthood&Eucharist. Site of the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
1c) Garden of Gethsemane: After the Total Gift of Self: Perpetuating Himself through the Sacrament of Holy Orders and of the Eucharist, Jesus begins in earnest, the climax of the Passion.
1b) Cistern where Jesus would've been imprisoned and passed Holy Thursday night (Dark Night of the Soul: experience of being abandoned). How we ought to console the Heart of Jesus for suffering infinitely out of love for us.
1a) Calvary: the Holy Sepulcher is obviously special, but Calvary was my favorite.
Here, I was able to spend a few hours in silent prayer. Mass here was unforgettable and a moving experience for me. The experience was the fruition of how I've always sought to live the Mass, especially since priestly ordination. THIS is the location, Calvary, where Mass - THE Holy Mass - is re-presented to us all over the world. Where the Author of Life was hung on a tree, for the salvation of the whole world: this Life is offered as a Gift to us in every Holy Mass. It all took place HERE.
(Holy Sepulchre: Mass, of course, was very special. The experience of "light"... it is luminous and surreal. The Creed (the Profession of Faith struck me) the words "on the 3rd day He rose"... Amen, I believe... right HERE.)
To Jesus through Mary,
Fr Edward
Top 4 in descending order:
4) Eremos Cave (near the Sea of Galilee): the likely location where Jesus would’ve spent long hours in solitude praying and communing with the Father in the Holy Spirit. As Scripture often mentions Jesus going off to a "deserted place to pray". Here I asked for the gift of prayer.
3) Nazareth: Church of the Annunciation: God, for the first time, touches down on earth... At Mary's home. Where, for the first time in history, God would've entered into space and time, taking on a human nature, being conceived in Mary's womb. Where Mary becomes the Ark of the Covenant;
where Mary becomes Mother of God.
Incredible.
2) Church of the Assumption: The place of my favorite Marian mystery. Mary's Assumption: the perfect bookend to the gratuitous grace of the Immaculate Conception. Mary has all merit for a life of perfect and total faithfulness to God... Here I asked for continual grace for heroic sanctity/grace of a holy death.
1) All the Places associate with Jesus' Passion: Holy Thursday through Good Friday. I knew ahead of time that these would be the most significant places for me. The Passion has been the subject of for the vast majority of my quiet prayer in the last year and a half.
1d) Upper Room: though we weren't able to spend much time, there were crowds: the significance of the place was not lost on me. The institution of the Priesthood&Eucharist. Site of the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
1c) Garden of Gethsemane: After the Total Gift of Self: Perpetuating Himself through the Sacrament of Holy Orders and of the Eucharist, Jesus begins in earnest, the climax of the Passion.
1b) Cistern where Jesus would've been imprisoned and passed Holy Thursday night (Dark Night of the Soul: experience of being abandoned). How we ought to console the Heart of Jesus for suffering infinitely out of love for us.
1a) Calvary: the Holy Sepulcher is obviously special, but Calvary was my favorite.
Here, I was able to spend a few hours in silent prayer. Mass here was unforgettable and a moving experience for me. The experience was the fruition of how I've always sought to live the Mass, especially since priestly ordination. THIS is the location, Calvary, where Mass - THE Holy Mass - is re-presented to us all over the world. Where the Author of Life was hung on a tree, for the salvation of the whole world: this Life is offered as a Gift to us in every Holy Mass. It all took place HERE.
(Holy Sepulchre: Mass, of course, was very special. The experience of "light"... it is luminous and surreal. The Creed (the Profession of Faith struck me) the words "on the 3rd day He rose"... Amen, I believe... right HERE.)
To Jesus through Mary,
Fr Edward
| Places We Visited During the Pilgrimage (most of them) |