Page 23 - Holyland Magazine - Catholic Edition 2015
P. 23
Coming Home to Jesus
A Holy Land Pilgrimage
Make your faith come alive by walking in the footsteps of Jesus
By Scott Scherer
H ave you ever thought you knew We sense His absent presence at the empty
Or coming down the Mount of Olives, imagine
someone, only to discover that you
yourself among that zealous Palm Sunday tomb. This is a journey we are invited to
crowd, fanning Our Lord with fresh palms. make. A necessary journey. But that is not all.
got to know them on a much deeper
Standing with our Blessed Mother on the
level after visiting their hometown and
the landscape of their life?
beloved Son hung on the cross against the for days as a pilgrim, you board your plane
hard, dark sky. Or see yourself at the side home. As you make your way down the
Coming home to Jesus is the transformational coarse ground at Calvary, looking up at her After you have stumbled in His footsteps
experience that awaits you in the Holy Land. of Mary Madgalene that early morning she aisle, reaching into the overhead bin, you
raced to the tomb, her heart bleeding at the are nudged into a realization: something is
crushing loss of her friend.
I have witnessed it time and again. For diferent from just ten days ago when your
more than 30 years, I’ve been organizing journey began. Something has changed. You
pilgrimages for Catholics to the land of Our This, and more, awaits you on your Holy Land have changed.
Lord, and I have seen these pilgrims return to Pilgrimage.
the States ten days later, profoundly altered You are bringing home a deeper knowledge,
by their visit to the home of Jesus. Why go on such a pilgrimage, you might ask? perhaps more of a discovery. And the
It’s a valid question, one I am often asked. discovery is this: His home is in you now and
Wouldn’t you undergo a fundamental change It takes time. It takes money. You’ve got a always has been. His love is planted in the
too? bucket list. Other places are on it too. Plus soft soil of your heart. This knowledge – and
you don’t know what to expect over there. He will never leave you.
Imagine celebrating Mass in the very caves
outside Bethlehem where the shepherds kept All of that may be true. But the real question Scott Scherer is president
watch over their sheep that historic starlight is not what awaits you. The question is Who. and owner of Burbank, Calif.
night. Or walking through Nazareth, seeing based Catholic Travel Centre, a
young children playing in the streets and specialty pilgrimage company
The irony is this: we go to ind Jesus there, to
imagining two thousand years ago that one of meet Him in the Holy Land. And we do. In the serving the Catholic community
since 1991.
them could have been Jesus. grotto of the Nativity. Along the Via Dolorosa.
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A Holy Land Pilgrimage
Make your faith come alive by walking in the footsteps of Jesus
By Scott Scherer
H ave you ever thought you knew We sense His absent presence at the empty
Or coming down the Mount of Olives, imagine
someone, only to discover that you
yourself among that zealous Palm Sunday tomb. This is a journey we are invited to
crowd, fanning Our Lord with fresh palms. make. A necessary journey. But that is not all.
got to know them on a much deeper
Standing with our Blessed Mother on the
level after visiting their hometown and
the landscape of their life?
beloved Son hung on the cross against the for days as a pilgrim, you board your plane
hard, dark sky. Or see yourself at the side home. As you make your way down the
Coming home to Jesus is the transformational coarse ground at Calvary, looking up at her After you have stumbled in His footsteps
experience that awaits you in the Holy Land. of Mary Madgalene that early morning she aisle, reaching into the overhead bin, you
raced to the tomb, her heart bleeding at the are nudged into a realization: something is
crushing loss of her friend.
I have witnessed it time and again. For diferent from just ten days ago when your
more than 30 years, I’ve been organizing journey began. Something has changed. You
pilgrimages for Catholics to the land of Our This, and more, awaits you on your Holy Land have changed.
Lord, and I have seen these pilgrims return to Pilgrimage.
the States ten days later, profoundly altered You are bringing home a deeper knowledge,
by their visit to the home of Jesus. Why go on such a pilgrimage, you might ask? perhaps more of a discovery. And the
It’s a valid question, one I am often asked. discovery is this: His home is in you now and
Wouldn’t you undergo a fundamental change It takes time. It takes money. You’ve got a always has been. His love is planted in the
too? bucket list. Other places are on it too. Plus soft soil of your heart. This knowledge – and
you don’t know what to expect over there. He will never leave you.
Imagine celebrating Mass in the very caves
outside Bethlehem where the shepherds kept All of that may be true. But the real question Scott Scherer is president
watch over their sheep that historic starlight is not what awaits you. The question is Who. and owner of Burbank, Calif.
night. Or walking through Nazareth, seeing based Catholic Travel Centre, a
young children playing in the streets and specialty pilgrimage company
The irony is this: we go to ind Jesus there, to
imagining two thousand years ago that one of meet Him in the Holy Land. And we do. In the serving the Catholic community
since 1991.
them could have been Jesus. grotto of the Nativity. Along the Via Dolorosa.
10 23
