Sunday, January 9, 2011

Holy Land Pilgrimage 2010: Day #7 Christmas, Journey to Jerusalem

December 25, 2010 9:00 PM
Day #7

Midnight Mass last night was a great relief. I received extraordinary spiritual consolation, but life goes on. It was good to hear Fr. Hurley's homily this morning about finding Jesus in the ordinary and not necessarily in the extraordinary, because a little consolation is great while it lasts, but then it's back down the mountain to the mundane again, and we have to do what we can to remember that consolation and let it drive us to persevere in those more ordinary of days. ... ... ...

Today we had Mass to the sunrise and stopped at Qumran and Jericho and the Dead Sea on our way to Jerusalem. It was really nice getting to engage in some good camaraderie there. (You wouldn't believe how buoyant you really are on the Dead Sea. It's incredible. You float so well that you have great difficulty swimming on your stomach because your legs and arms are too far out of the water! The water is so salty, too, that you aren't allowed to put your head underwater without seeing immediate medical attention. I got a little water up my nose and it totally dried out and started to itch. We had a ton of fun there while it lasted.) ... ...

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