A Travelin' Girl: A Calling, A Roman City, A Carmelite Monastery and A Wedding

Today we headed up to Nazareth and our first stop was the Basilica of the Annunciation. The church, consecrated in 1969, is built above the grotto where Mary was living when the Angel Gabriel announced "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!" (Luke 1). After a brief history of the church, we made our way inside. Throughout the courtyard and inside the church itself are gifts from countries all over the world honoring Mary.

Here are just a few of the gifts for Mary:

This door is a gift from Germany and depicts the life of Jesus.

The ceiling in the entrance to the church...not a gift but very beautiful.

Upon entering the church, you notice a large opening in center of the floor containing an altar. If you look behind the altar, there is an iron gate with another altar in front of an entrance to a grotto. The grotto is where it is believed Mary was living when the Angel Gabriel came to her. We were fortunate there were no other groups in the church when we arrived and were able to have some quiet time in front of the gate leading to Mama Mary's House as our guide called it.

One of the great things about going on a Pilgrimage with Father West is he has us say the appropriate prayers at the various locations to give even more meaning to what we are seeing. Something pretty powerful about saying the Hail Mary in front of this altar and grotto entrance.

We followed a spiral staircase to the upper church where would celebrate mass. Along the way, the walls were lined with beautiful stained glass like this one. The upper church was absolutely breathtaking. We sat on the high altar as Father West and Deacon Randy (one of our fellow pilgrims) celebrated mass.

Just across the back courtyard from the Basilica is The Church of St. Joseph. This is believed to be the site of Joseph's cabinetry workshop. With the close proximity of their two homes, they probably knew each other for many years...Joseph was the boy next door.

Downstairs in the grotto there is what archaeologists believe is an ancient mikvah, a Jewish ritual bath.

Beautiful mosaic installed in 2015

My fellow pilgrims

Our next stop was the city of Caesarea. This was Herod the Great's attempt to win favor with the Roman Empire by building a great Roman city. Herod the Great (father of King Herod) was born to a Roman mother and Jewish father. The Romans considered him a Jew and the Jews considered him a Roman so he was in essence a man without a culture. He so wanted to impress the Romans that he used the Roman instructions for building a city.

Until today, I never really thought about it but every city that is built to honor Rome has the exact same footprint. Looking at the model of Caesarea today, I could see Ostia Antica (city outside of Rome). As the Byzantines and Crusaders occupied the city, they made changes. The Byzantines expanded the size of Caesarea whereas the Crusaders walled it off more for fortification against the Persians.

While the port of Jaffa is not far from Caesarea, Herod the Great built his own port on the Mediterranean. The main reason was he wanted to bring in statues for his Roman city but statues were against Jewish law and therefore could not be brought in through the Jewish port. Back in this time, Jews would not go into Roman cities and Romans would not go into Jewish cities.

Father West telling us the story of Cornelius the Centurion and Peter. Cornelius was stationed in Caesarea when he received a message from an angel that God wanted him to go to Joppa to get Peter and bring him to Casearea. Now remember what I said earlier about Romans not going to Jewish cities and Jews not going to Roman cities? Well God was calling both Cornelius and Peter to do just that so, off Cornelius went to find Peter. Knowing it was God's will, Peter returned to Casearea with Cornelius and told stories of Jesus and his miracles. It is said that many Gentiles and Jews converted to Christianity that day...included Cornelius.

After a quick falafel stop, we were off to Mukhraka, a Carmelite Monastary. Mukhraka is the site God vs. Baal when Elijah challenges King Ahab to prove to Elijah that God is Almighty. Long story short, Elijah and Ahab both get a bull and they must lay it out on a pile of wood and call on their higher power to bring fire to the wood. Ahab went first and called out to Baal over and over and over but to no avail. When it was Elijah's turn, he told his men to pour pitchers of water on the bull and wood and did it a second time and then a third time...Elijah was totally mocking and messing with Ahab. Then Elijah called on God and the fire of God rained down on the bull and wood (1 King 18).

Father West reading the story of God vs. Baal
from his Bible app...he is such a techy priest!

View from top of monastery...on a clear day you can
see the Med

Our final stop of the day is Cana to The Church of the Wedding where Jesus performed His first miracle. I must admit that while I knew we would be going into a modern day city, there was a part of me that was still expecting to see it look like it did when Jesus turned water into wine. Cana, like Nazareth, is an Arab city and therefore very crowded.

The church itself was a bit of a sanctuary from the hectic town. Once again, we were the only people in the church and it was a nice time to sit for quiet reflection and prayer. There is a piece of glass in the floor of the church that looks down into what archeologist believe is the site (or at least close to it) where the Cana of Galilee once was located.

After a little time in the church, we walked into the Divine Mercy Chapel where married couples on the trip could renew their vows. We had 10 couples renew their vows...must remember to ask everyone how long they have been married so we can see the combined number of years of marriage in the group.

While prepping for the ceremony, Father was looking for some matches and this pic totally captured his fear he would be caught by one of the nuns. No matter how old a former Catholic school student gets, they will always be afraid of nuns!