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Third Sunday of the Year
22 January 2012
Let us go up to Jerusalem!
For many years, I have thought about leading a pilgrimage from St. Mary’s to the Holy Land, and now it is time. We will leave New York City on Sunday 7 October 2012 and return to Greenville to Thursday 18 October 2012. During our pilgrimage, we will spend six nights in Jerusalem and three nights at the Sea of Galilee. We will visit many of the holy places about which we read in the Gospels, celebrate Mass each day, and seek to follow the Lord Jesus ever more faithfully in the Way of the Cross.
I will be teaching and celebrating Mass throughout the pilgrimage, but since this is my first trip to the Holy Land, we also need an experienced guide to lead us. Mr. Christopher Cross (is there a more perfect name for a guide to the Holy Land?), who lives in North Carolina, will be that guide, and he comes very highly recommended from those who have traveled with him in the past. You can read about his apostolate as a guide of the Holy Land at his website www.catholicholyland.com.
The total cost for the tour package is $3,298, and this includes everything except transportation to and from JFK airport in New York and any gratuities you choose to give those who serve us in our restaurants, hotels, and buses. All meals, motor coaches, hotels, and round trip airfare from New York to Tel Aviv are included in the cost of the trip. Each pilgrim is responsible for getting to JFK on departure day and getting home from JFK upon our return. Finally, the package is for double occupancy in the hotel; single occupancy is available for an additional fee.
Because of the physical rigors of making a trip of this kind, all pilgrims must be in general good health and able to walk up stairs and across rough ground without assistance. This trip is not a vacation, and we are not looking for rest or recreation. A pilgrimage is a journey of faith that entails penance, conversion, reconciliation, and restoration, and each part of the journey must therefore be marked by a spirit of renunciation of self in order to be conformed more completely to the Lord Jesus.
In the bulletin today is a brochure from Christopher Cross, and on Thursday 9 February, he will meet at 6.30 pm in McGrady Hall with those who are going on the pilgrimage or who want more information before making a decision. If you think you want to go, please plan now to join us for that meeting. And each day between now and our departure, pray Psalm 122 — a prayer of pilgrims going up to Jerusalem.
Father Newman