Greeting to all:

It is Friday afternoon as I write this post to you. This morning we went to the Church of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary just outside the old city for our last Eucharistic celebration together. It is a beautiful church where it is believed that Mary after the resurrection of Jesus spent her last days and died here. We have had some free time after mass and soon will have our closing ceremony and our farewell dinner.

To recap the last couple of days on Wednesday we went to Ain Karen to the Basilica of the Visitation and  Basilica of St. John the Baptist. This was where Elizabeth lived during her pregency with John the Baptist. Mary came to visit her cousin from Nazareth and it sure is in the hill country as the town is built on a hill. I was the homilist for the day so it was extra special for me. After mass we walked to where John the Baptist was born in the lower part of the Basilica. So often it is the case that these holy places like the churches are in areas where there is just Arabs living so there is no people who come to the churches except pilgrims like ourselves and there are sure a lot of people that come. As I have mentioned this is January and February the raining season and usually it is quieter with less pilgrims, however there sure has been many groups that we have seen on our journey. We visited the National Museum of Israel and the two exhibits that are noted is model of the Old City of Jerusalem at the time of the second temple and the building where the scrolls of Qumran are kept. That afternoon and early evening we had two conferences.

Thursday was a light day as we went to celebrate mass at Pater Noster on the Mount of Olives and than we had a free day to tour, visit sites to  shop and to rest. Our last conference was on pastoral charity.

Tomorrow we are on our way back home. Our flight is not till 12:30 p.m. and just heard that there is no taxi to take us around 8:30 a.m. so we are leaving really early at 6:45 a.m. so we will be spending more time than we thought at the airport in Tel Aviv.

I will write some reflections and attach pictures later on this evening.

Fr. Mike