In October 2010 I travelled to the Holy Land with my Mam. We were part of a pilgrim group from our parish. It was such a an amazing pilgrimage. It lasted 8 days and we packed a lot into those 8 days.  We spent the first part of our pilgrimage in Jerusalem, with the final few days in Tiberias. Everyday we rose early, had breakfast and then onto our coach for the day. We then travelled to many of  the holy sites of Jerusalem. We had a wonder local guide George who was wonderful at his job.

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I found it facinating to actually stand in and see many of the places i've heard about in the bible. Each day we had a full program with Holy Mass everyday as a highlight for me. To celebrate Holy Mass in the land where Jesus the Son of God lived, preached and performed miracles was a great gift from God for me. I will never forget just how special Holy Mass was each day. It brought the Gospels alive in my heart. Before, hearing place names didn't mean all that much to me in the Gospel readings.  But now, I can visualise these place as I hear the Gospel readings, really bringing the Gospels Alive.  



I'd love to go back one day to the Holy Land and maybe spend more time there and take things at a much slower pace. I found it hard at times out there because we moved at such a pace. We saw so many holy sites each day that it was hard to find time to pray it any of the sites. I imagine if I took things at my own pace, it would be a more spiritual experience. Even though we had an amazing spiritual aspect to our pilgrimage. Fr Ben and Mary H did a fantastic job in feeding this need. They found the perfect balance between the tourist and pilgrim aspect of visiting the Holy Land. It is hard at many of the holy sites to find time for prayer simply because of the amount of pilgrims visiting these sites. But our group leaders and George managed to make it as special as they could for us. I will never forget the hour adoration we had the cave near Gethsemane on of the evenings, It was so beautiful.   

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