Pilgrimage to the Holy Land, 2008
Fr. Gerard Battersby, Director of Graduate Seminarians, School of Theology

 

In 1980 the first year theologians at St. John's Provincial Seminary began what has become a tradition as they made their way to the Holy Land in search of a deeper intimacy with the one who bids us all to come and see where he stays.

 

Our first year theologians left for Israel on the 2nd of May this year, along with Frs. Dan Trapp and Mike Byrnes (Spiritual Director and Biblical Scholar/Vice-Rector) our men from dioceses all over the state, country and world (3 men from China) walking in the steps of the Master. 

 

Our men have traditionally made their home base just outside of Jerusalem in the historic village of Ein Karem where John the Baptist is said to have been born.  From Ein Karem the men are able to walk the Via Dolorosa and pray at Golgotha and the Holy Sepulchre.  This land which is the cross roads of civilization remains today as it was in the time of Our Lord, a land of great beauty, historic profundity and a heartbreaking contradiction of hope and division. 

 

Our hearts soared to know more deeply that God so loved the world that he sent his only Son that those who believe in him might not perish but might have eternal life; to walk in the paths of the Lord and behold the places of his suffering, death and resurrection is to begin to fathom the depths of this love and compels us in a new way to share this love, this Good News. 

 

Yet even today this Good News has yet to penetrate the hardness of men's hearts and for this Jesus still needs heralds.

 

I joined the men as their time in Jerusalem came to an end. 

 

In mid-May we began our descent from Jerusalem to the sun baked barrenness of Jericho and thence on to verdant climes of Galilee and the Sea where Jesus showed himself as the one who would feed the multitudes and as master of the elements commanding the wind and waves to desist. 

 

Even written in the land itself we saw the contrast between barrenness and abundance between the way of the lord of this world and the way, the truth and the life which is Jesus himself.

 

One of the most moving times in Galilee was our time spent on Mt. Tabor, the Mount of Transfiguration.  It highlighted our time in the Holy Land which was transformative for our seminarians even as it must have been for Peter, James and John as Jesus led them up the mountain to behold him in his glory.

 

Thanks to your generosity our men began a journey in the Holy Land which will not end with our wheels touching down at Kennedy Airport but will continue according to the unique plan God has for each of them.