Holy Land pilgrimage report - Day One

Icon of Our Lady in Church of Nativity

Dear Readers - This week ICN is being brought to you from a pilgrimage in the Holy Land. Deacon Patrick van der Vorst, who writes Gospel in Art each day, is leading our group. Fr Charles Soyombo is celebrating our daily Masses. A Christian Palestinian is our guide. Liz Simpson, Giovanni Marseglia and Ben Ybarra are leading music during our liturgies. Each day I'll try to bring you a short report on our trip - and Deacon Patrick's homilies.

Day One - Bethlehem - 11 April

Our first day has been really memorable. It began at the Shepherds Fields just outside Bethlehem - the site where - according to tradition - the Shepherds watching their flocks were told the incredible news of the birth of Jesus by an angel. There's a beautiful cave chapel there and several small chapels, looked after by the Franciscans. Our open air Mass held under a canopy was accompanied by some beautiful singing and playing. Blackbirds and sparrows joined in with the music.

From here we were taken by coach to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem - the oldest site continuously used as a place of worship in Christianity - built over a network of caves, by the Emperor Constantine in 326 - 339, and rebuilt and embellished many times through the centuries. Our guide told us some of the history of this complex ancient site which is shared by Catholic, Armenian, Greek Orthodox, Coptic, Ethiopian and Syriac churches. There are many beautiful icons and candelabras. The church's interior walls feature medieval golden mosaics. We venerated the site where Jesus was born, in the Nativity cave marked with a silver star.

After a delicious lunch at the Olive Tree restaurant in Bethlehem, we were taken to Jerusalem, where we visited Ein Karem, the birthplace of St John the Baptist and the Visitation Church which honours the visit paid by by Our Lady to Elizabeth. This is where, according to tradition, Mary recited her song of praise , the Magnificat.

This morning the weather was quite murky and damp - but by the afternoon the sun had come out. As we walked home we met several stray cats - I resisted the temptation to bring one back to the hotel. On our way back to our bus we passed an animal shelter so those strays are being looked after.

The atmosphere is our hotel is sociable. Among the other guests there is an Ethiopian Coptic group, some Orthodox Christians from Ukraine, a Romanian group and some visitors from America. While we have just celebrated Easter Sunday - many of these churches are still in Holy Week. The Jewish people have two more days of Passover to celebrate - while the Muslim community here have nine days before Ramadan ends.

Tomorrow we have a very early start and busy schedule - so I will leave you here. We will be putting more pictures on the ICN Facebook page - and publishing Deacon Patrick's homilies each day.

See: Homily Text: Shepherds Fields, Bethlehem - www.indcatholicnews.com/news/46940