Experiences of some of our pilgrim guests....

We would like to share with you the testimony that was recently given to us by a young American woman, at the end of her pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

"Israel is a beautiful, fascinating country worthy of a visit by all. But, for serious Christians, whose circumstances allow, a trip to the Holy Land should be a required act of faith. Nothing has had as powerful a positive influence on my faith (trips to Rome included) as my recent visit to Jesus’ home on earth.

We are living at a time when it is increasingly difficult to live our faith in a profound manner. We are also living at a time when it has never been easier to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, where graces to help us live during this difficult time abound. As Regnum Christi members, we are particularly blessed, because we recently were given a ‘home’ in Jerusalem. The Legion of Christ now oversees the Notre Dame Pilgrimage Center, with some 150 rooms, located right outside the walls of the Old City, and only 10 minutes by foot to the Holy Sepulcher. Three Legion of Christ priests and four consecrated Regnum Christi ladies live and work at Notre Dame. One of their main missions is to provide spiritual guidance to pilgrims. For Regnum Christi members, there has never been a more opportune moment to visit the Holy Land.

I spent nine days in the Holy Land, visiting Galilee in the north of Israel, where Jesus spent much of his life on earth, passed through ‘Samaria’, and spent much of my stay in Jerusalem. What surprised me most about Israel was how physically beautiful and green it is. I had expected a stark, almost unwelcoming desert. Somehow, it gave me great comfort to know that God, as Man, saw and experienced on earth the great beauty of His own creation.

Nothing can perfectly describe the sensation of physically walking in the footsteps of Jesus. It was like personally living the Rosary. Never before had I felt so close to its mysteries: being at the site of the annunciation, where it all started, in Nazareth, kneeling in front of Jesus’ birth place inside a 4th century basilica in Bethlehem, walking the streets of Cana where Jesus performed his first miracle, dipping my feet into the sea of Galilee, at the foot of the mount where Jesus preached the Beatitudes, standing in the Upper room, where Jesus instituted the Eucharist, praying in front of the Blessed Sacrament in the garden of Gethsemane under 2,000 year old olive trees, attending Mass on Calvary, and again in the tomb where Christ was resurrected.

On one special morning, I visited a small town outside Jerusalem, where the Virgin Mary visited her cousin, Elizabeth, after the annunciation. The location was striking for two reasons. It was located 2-3 hours, by car, from Nazareth. Being there, made me realize how long and difficult this trip was for Mary, magnifying for me the act of charity that Mary performed. What also struck me about this special place was its sheer beauty. The town is set amidst rolling, lush hills, covered with flowers and trees. I could just imagine Mary and Elizabeth enjoying this beautiful setting as they sewed or prepared meals. While Mary’s sacrifice was great in performing this act of charity, the earthly ‘reward’ was also great. Visiting the Holy sites where these historic experiences occurred intensified them for me, converted them from black and white to vivid color.

My visit to the dungeon, where Jesus spent much of the night after being arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, represented a much sadder note. The stone, underground chambers were tiny and damp. One could only imagine how much worse they were with no light. I had never seriously contemplated this part of Jesus’ Passion. It made me appreciate even more the beautiful scene in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, when Christ’s mother lies down on the stones above the dungeon in order to accompany Him more closely during His great sacrifice.

It is difficult to fully appreciate the intense psychological pain Jesus endured in Gethsemane, or the extreme physical pain He endured at His scourging and crucifixion. However, I think most of us can grasp well the loneliness and isolation Jesus must have felt alone in that cold, dark, dank jail cell.

Being in the Holy Land makes one more fully appreciate how linked the Old and New Testaments are, both physically and theologically. To cite an example, Jerusalem’s great temple, which was the cornerstone of Jewish life during Jesus’ life, was built upon the burial site of Adam, which is also the spot where Abraham nearly sacrificed his son on the bequest of God.

There were many layers of physical barriers leading to the inner sanctuary of the Temple and, ultimately, only a very select few could enter this innermost sanctuary. This is made very apparent when one visits the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and studies reconstructions of how the Temple looked 2000 years ago. Jesus’ entire ministry was oriented towards His final entry into Jerusalem. The physical Temple was destroyed after Jesus’ crucifixion. But, because of Christ’s resurrection, we all have the possibility of being living sanctuaries. After spending time in Jerusalem, I asked myself the question: How many barriers have I erected preventing the Holy Spirit from more fully inhabiting that innermost sanctuary of my heart? "