Good Morning / Afternoon / Evening / whatever time you read this!
I hope and pray all of you are doing well. I'm doing great over here in the Holy Land. Things have been pretty go go go the last few days, so I'm sorry I have not written more for my blog. I have been able to see and do a lot of amazing things since the last time I blogged. So I will share some of those with you.
I got to participate in the actual Stations of the Cross. Every Friday, at least during Lent, the Franciscans pray the Stations outside along the actual path Jesus would have walked to Calvary. I have to admit, it was hard to pray with so many people and with life in the city just continuing on around you, but to say I participated in it was the grace. To walk where He walked to Calvary is quite special.
Another thing was we visited the coastal city of Ashkelon. This was a long day since we hit a lot of traffic, but it is in such a beautiful area. It was right up against the Mediterranean Sea and the water was so blue! We saw some bricks that were dated 4,000 years old and yet we're still intact, which is amazing that they lasted that long. We also saw some Crusader walls and visited in the park where I believe a Basilica would have been.
Today I saw 3 churches. We saw the Russian Orthodox Church of St. Mary Magdalen and the church in the Mt. of Olives which is the Church of the Agony in the Garden. The church of Mary Magdalen was nice to walk around. It had many many relics. The Church of the Agony was beautiful too. We were able to have Mass there. The person who built the Church made it in such a way that with the windows, art, and architecture, that it would seem almost night like, and as a result be able to set up a scene similar to what Christ would have experienced in His sufferings that night in the garden. In front of the altar was the rocks where it is believed He prayed. The same person who built the Church of the Agony built the church of the Raising of Lazarus with stone that absorbs moisture so that the church feels cooler and almost like you're in a tomb to represent the tomb of Lazarus. Very unique and neat churches for sure. It's neat how they can build them to mimic what they are dedicated for. Also, while on the topic of churches, I visited today too the Church of the Flagellation of Jesus. This I believe is where He would have been beaten before He made the Way of the Cross. It was powerful to be in there and to pray a little.
Now for another important part of the trip, the food! The food has been pretty good in Jerusalem. I have had Kosher McDonald's now. The frys are still the same! I also found a cheap pizza place. This place is cheap cheese or vegi pizza, but it does the trick until I can get home to some Home Rum Inn Pepperoni pizza! I also tried "Holy Bagel" today. It was delicious! I love bagels. One of my favorite foods, but I hadn't had one since I arrived. They were pricy, but well worth it! Overall as I mentioned, the food has been good, but I'm starting to miss home food. It'll be nice to get back to that, and to pay less money for it too!
Please keep me and my class in your prayers. We have a midterm on Monday. It will be a lot of material, but hopefully will be pretty straight forward. I can't believe we have just about two weeks left. The time has gone by rather fast. It'll be good to be home, but I'm going to try and enjoy these last days as much as possible. Take care everyone!
Oh, I almost forgot, here is the link to photos. I've updated it. Enjoy!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/66858764@N08/with/9112948990/
-Chris
Thursday, March 5, 2015
Saturday, February 21, 2015
Jerusalem
Hello everyone!
I pray that everyone is doing great. I'm doing much better than I was. I had a stomach bug for the last week and haven't been able to do much with the blog. Thanks be to God with all the prayers and rest I feel much better than I did! A lot has happened since my last blog. We have finished our time in the north and we have moved down to Jerusalem for the final part of the trip. It is really neat to be here. It is a big modern city. They have tons of stores going down the street just like at home, lots of great coffee shops, and even some of the main names you would see at home. I was surprised to see a Skechers store for example. Of course they have McDonald's here too! I have not yet been in Jerusalem, but I know I'll try it. They also have 3 Kosher McDonald's I heard. I'm gunna have to search for that too, just so I can say I tried it.
The first full day I was here I got to visit the Holy Sepulcher. This is a huge church. It is the church that was built around Calvary and the tomb where Jesus was placed. Right when you walk in they have the stone he was on where they prepared His body for burial. The tomb is very small. Only a few people can be in it at a time. The Orthodox priests also keep you moving, so you get about 15-20 seconds in the tomb, but it is quite a peaceful few seconds. The site of Calvary is quite beautiful too. You can actually place your hand down in a star under the altar of Calvary and touch the actual stones of Calvary! What a blessing to see and touch all these Holy sites. Just in reflecting as I type this, the Bible is already starting to be seen differently by me. One reason is I can say I have been to these places...they exist...they are much more "real". Another thing is seeing how things are written in the Bible, and then seeing how it is. For example: I thought the area of the crucifixion and tomb weren't so close together. Sure in I think John's Gospel it says the tomb was close by, but what's close by? A five minute walk? But this tomb is within a couple hundred feet I'd say. Sorta cool to just visualize it in a new way.
We also have resumed classes. The first class on Gospel of John was a test and the Prophets class was lecture. Interesting stuff. I'm looking forward to the Gospel class the most. Today we visited the history museum here in Jerusalem. I'm not one for museums, but it was actually pretty cool. Seeing things thousands upon thousands of years old, or how weapons for hunting developed over the ages, it was neat to see some of those things. Tomorrow we have Mass at St. Anne's. I believe it is supposed to be the house of Sts. Joachim and Anne. Should be neat. Some of us also plan to explore tomorrow too.
I can't believe the trip is almost over. With class and all the movement, it goes by fast. I'll try to keep you all updated as much as I can in the next couple weeks. Things will pick up class wise and work load wise since we have reading for classes that we begin when we return. Hopefully I'll get through it all. AND ORDINATION. SUPER EXCITING!! Only about a month to go. I can't wait! Alrighty, please pray for me as I pray for you.
In Christ,
Chris
I pray that everyone is doing great. I'm doing much better than I was. I had a stomach bug for the last week and haven't been able to do much with the blog. Thanks be to God with all the prayers and rest I feel much better than I did! A lot has happened since my last blog. We have finished our time in the north and we have moved down to Jerusalem for the final part of the trip. It is really neat to be here. It is a big modern city. They have tons of stores going down the street just like at home, lots of great coffee shops, and even some of the main names you would see at home. I was surprised to see a Skechers store for example. Of course they have McDonald's here too! I have not yet been in Jerusalem, but I know I'll try it. They also have 3 Kosher McDonald's I heard. I'm gunna have to search for that too, just so I can say I tried it.
The first full day I was here I got to visit the Holy Sepulcher. This is a huge church. It is the church that was built around Calvary and the tomb where Jesus was placed. Right when you walk in they have the stone he was on where they prepared His body for burial. The tomb is very small. Only a few people can be in it at a time. The Orthodox priests also keep you moving, so you get about 15-20 seconds in the tomb, but it is quite a peaceful few seconds. The site of Calvary is quite beautiful too. You can actually place your hand down in a star under the altar of Calvary and touch the actual stones of Calvary! What a blessing to see and touch all these Holy sites. Just in reflecting as I type this, the Bible is already starting to be seen differently by me. One reason is I can say I have been to these places...they exist...they are much more "real". Another thing is seeing how things are written in the Bible, and then seeing how it is. For example: I thought the area of the crucifixion and tomb weren't so close together. Sure in I think John's Gospel it says the tomb was close by, but what's close by? A five minute walk? But this tomb is within a couple hundred feet I'd say. Sorta cool to just visualize it in a new way.
We also have resumed classes. The first class on Gospel of John was a test and the Prophets class was lecture. Interesting stuff. I'm looking forward to the Gospel class the most. Today we visited the history museum here in Jerusalem. I'm not one for museums, but it was actually pretty cool. Seeing things thousands upon thousands of years old, or how weapons for hunting developed over the ages, it was neat to see some of those things. Tomorrow we have Mass at St. Anne's. I believe it is supposed to be the house of Sts. Joachim and Anne. Should be neat. Some of us also plan to explore tomorrow too.
I can't believe the trip is almost over. With class and all the movement, it goes by fast. I'll try to keep you all updated as much as I can in the next couple weeks. Things will pick up class wise and work load wise since we have reading for classes that we begin when we return. Hopefully I'll get through it all. AND ORDINATION. SUPER EXCITING!! Only about a month to go. I can't wait! Alrighty, please pray for me as I pray for you.
In Christ,
Chris
Saturday, February 14, 2015
Later Nazareth
Hello Everybody!
We just finished our tour of Nazareth. What a beautiful town. It was way more modern than Bethlehem, and the Church of the Annunciation was beautiful! The past 24 hours have been very exciting. We visited the Mt. Tabor where the Transfiguration happened and also had a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee. Being on the boat was neat. We had a brief meditation time to ponder all the various stories of Jesus' ministry out on the sea. For the next couple days we will be visiting the other various sites in the north where Jesus lived and did a lot of His ministry. By the end of next week we will be in Jerusalem and back to a regular class schedule. We will be resuming our Gospel of John class and Prophets class. Let me tell you. It's super cool opening the Gospel of Luke and reading the first 4 chapters give or take and being able to say I've been to those places. What a blessing! Talk to everyone soon.
-Chris
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Photo Link
http://www.flickr.com/photos/66858764@N08/with/9112948990/
That link should take you to my photos. It has Holy Land photos and all my Guatemala photos. I should be able to put more up eventually. Enjoy!
That link should take you to my photos. It has Holy Land photos and all my Guatemala photos. I should be able to put more up eventually. Enjoy!
Eternal Rest Grant Unto Him O Lord
Hi everyone,
First and foremost I want to express my sympathy to the Foys family after the loss of Deacon Frank. Eternal Rest Grant unto Him O Lord, and Let the Perpetual Light Shine Upon Him. Deacon Frank actually trained me how to be an altar server. Learning how to be an altar server was a huge blessing in my life and a gift I have used ever since. Deacon Frank would always call me to serve weddings and funerals too. I also remember how he talked about wanting to deacon my first Mass as a priest as well. I always felt very loved and cared for by him. I'm going to miss him a lot. One of the last times I got to speak with him he told me the story of how he became a deacon. What a privilege to hear. Thank you Lord for the blessing of his life and help me to be a good and holy deacon as he was! Though I can't be home for the funeral, my prayers will be there. I'll be praying here in the Holy Land.
In the past few days I have been able to visit a lot of neat sites. What stands out the most is the Church of the Annunciation. What a beautiful church! In there is the grotto where the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and she made her Fiat to becoming the Mother of God. It's really neat seeing as the parts of the church that you can go in are on various levels. The big main church is on the "3rd" floor and the grotto where Mary met Gabriel down below. We also got to visit what was believed to be the home of the Holy Family. We also visited Armageddon. This is the place where the "last battle" is supposed to happen. It was actually an old city inhabited for thousands of years that is now a lot of rocks. People have come though and excavated the site and it had some impressive features for its time.
We also visited by the Mediterranean Sea at Caesarea Maritima. This is the place where the Angel freed Peter from his prison chains and where Paul waited to be taken to Rome to be tried in a Roman court. Very cool to be there and quite beautiful! The water was super blue! So far I have seen many beautiful sites and holy places. It will be a blessing to keep seeing these places and to keep seeing the Scripture in new light.
Alright everyone. Talk to you soon and know of my prayers!
-Chris
First and foremost I want to express my sympathy to the Foys family after the loss of Deacon Frank. Eternal Rest Grant unto Him O Lord, and Let the Perpetual Light Shine Upon Him. Deacon Frank actually trained me how to be an altar server. Learning how to be an altar server was a huge blessing in my life and a gift I have used ever since. Deacon Frank would always call me to serve weddings and funerals too. I also remember how he talked about wanting to deacon my first Mass as a priest as well. I always felt very loved and cared for by him. I'm going to miss him a lot. One of the last times I got to speak with him he told me the story of how he became a deacon. What a privilege to hear. Thank you Lord for the blessing of his life and help me to be a good and holy deacon as he was! Though I can't be home for the funeral, my prayers will be there. I'll be praying here in the Holy Land.
In the past few days I have been able to visit a lot of neat sites. What stands out the most is the Church of the Annunciation. What a beautiful church! In there is the grotto where the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and she made her Fiat to becoming the Mother of God. It's really neat seeing as the parts of the church that you can go in are on various levels. The big main church is on the "3rd" floor and the grotto where Mary met Gabriel down below. We also got to visit what was believed to be the home of the Holy Family. We also visited Armageddon. This is the place where the "last battle" is supposed to happen. It was actually an old city inhabited for thousands of years that is now a lot of rocks. People have come though and excavated the site and it had some impressive features for its time.
We also visited by the Mediterranean Sea at Caesarea Maritima. This is the place where the Angel freed Peter from his prison chains and where Paul waited to be taken to Rome to be tried in a Roman court. Very cool to be there and quite beautiful! The water was super blue! So far I have seen many beautiful sites and holy places. It will be a blessing to keep seeing these places and to keep seeing the Scripture in new light.
Alright everyone. Talk to you soon and know of my prayers!
-Chris
Friday, February 6, 2015
...And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
Good Evening (or Afternoon for everyone at home),
I hope everyone is doing well! I'm doing very well. Today was an "ordinary" day. It started off beautifully with 7:30am Mass in the Manger grotto at the Church of the Nativity. The Franciscans who run the Roman Catholic part of the church were very nice and let us take their Mass. It was beautiful to get to experience Mass there again.
Today was also a class day. The lectures today were on the Spiritual Direction course I'm taking. It was a good chance to get some good pointers for being a future spiritual director. If you have never experienced spiritual direction, I highly recommend it! What a gift! As a seminarian I'm required to have a spiritual director. However, required or not, it is such a blessing in my life. As we are learning, the purpose of a director is to help the directee grow in their relationship with God. That is the primary task of a spiritual direction relationship. Having someone to walk with you on that journey and assist you spiritually is a total blessing.
Free time today was spent just hanging out with the guys. I got to go to my favorite coffee shop too. I was able to have mocha and read my book for class. A nice way to spend the afternoon.
Tomorrow we visit the site of Jesus' Baptism and the Mount of Temptations. These are going to be two great sites! They are very "human" sites I would say. In Baptism, Jesus sanctified the waters of the Jordan allowing us who are Baptized to receive the Holy Spirit. With that comes immeasurable graces and virtues. The Mount of Temptation is also a key site for you and I. In being tempted something happened to Jesus that happens to you and I...He was tempted! The only difference, He never gave in. He never sinned. One of the things we can take from this though is that Jesus understands temptations and understands we as humans get them. We can turn to Him in our time of temptation and ask Him for the grace to overcome them just how He did. This isn't to say this is easy, but He is with us. The Holy Spirit is with us. And the grace is with us to overcome the temptation and defeat the sin! A little prayer I was taught to pray when temptations arise, whatever they may be, is "Jesus, Saver of Souls". That's it. That little phrase. I've come to make it my own little prayer by adding, "Jesus, Saver if Souls, save my soul so I can save souls for you." The "image" of whatever was tempting you may still be there after this prayer, that's only normal and how our brains work. If we try not to think of something we start to think of it. But it won't have the power over you. Jesus deflates temptations power by His grace. It just takes our part of asking for the grace.
Alrighty it's getting late over here. Please know of prayers and please pray for me.
-Chris
I hope everyone is doing well! I'm doing very well. Today was an "ordinary" day. It started off beautifully with 7:30am Mass in the Manger grotto at the Church of the Nativity. The Franciscans who run the Roman Catholic part of the church were very nice and let us take their Mass. It was beautiful to get to experience Mass there again.
Today was also a class day. The lectures today were on the Spiritual Direction course I'm taking. It was a good chance to get some good pointers for being a future spiritual director. If you have never experienced spiritual direction, I highly recommend it! What a gift! As a seminarian I'm required to have a spiritual director. However, required or not, it is such a blessing in my life. As we are learning, the purpose of a director is to help the directee grow in their relationship with God. That is the primary task of a spiritual direction relationship. Having someone to walk with you on that journey and assist you spiritually is a total blessing.
Free time today was spent just hanging out with the guys. I got to go to my favorite coffee shop too. I was able to have mocha and read my book for class. A nice way to spend the afternoon.
Tomorrow we visit the site of Jesus' Baptism and the Mount of Temptations. These are going to be two great sites! They are very "human" sites I would say. In Baptism, Jesus sanctified the waters of the Jordan allowing us who are Baptized to receive the Holy Spirit. With that comes immeasurable graces and virtues. The Mount of Temptation is also a key site for you and I. In being tempted something happened to Jesus that happens to you and I...He was tempted! The only difference, He never gave in. He never sinned. One of the things we can take from this though is that Jesus understands temptations and understands we as humans get them. We can turn to Him in our time of temptation and ask Him for the grace to overcome them just how He did. This isn't to say this is easy, but He is with us. The Holy Spirit is with us. And the grace is with us to overcome the temptation and defeat the sin! A little prayer I was taught to pray when temptations arise, whatever they may be, is "Jesus, Saver of Souls". That's it. That little phrase. I've come to make it my own little prayer by adding, "Jesus, Saver if Souls, save my soul so I can save souls for you." The "image" of whatever was tempting you may still be there after this prayer, that's only normal and how our brains work. If we try not to think of something we start to think of it. But it won't have the power over you. Jesus deflates temptations power by His grace. It just takes our part of asking for the grace.
Alrighty it's getting late over here. Please know of prayers and please pray for me.
-Chris
Monday, February 2, 2015
Instant Coffee
2/2/15
Hi Everyone!
Sorry I haven't blogged for a while! I have been doing lots of different things during my stay and I would like to give y'all an update. First I will mention the stars. Living at home in an area with a lot of light pollution and other things in the air, you don't get many opportunities to see the stars. Well here, that's a little bit different. The stars are super clear at night, and the moon is the brightest I've ever seen it! It is neat to be outside at night and just look up and see a beautiful night sky full of lights. OK, time to complain a little. Instant Coffee. No me gusta. That is really all they have for us though. Coffee by the pot I have come to find out isn't that common here, at least where we are staying and the places I've gone. I have found a way to mix one of the instant packs with some Nesquik powder. This allows me to make the coffee more tolerable and relive my childhood at the same time. There is a coffee shop though which is close by that makes a pretty good mocha. That's a great place to go and study while I'm here. It also has great wifi internet which is a gift! The internet where we stay isn't the greatest, so to be able to stop and browse the net or Facebook like at home, while drinking a mocha, is pretty legit. The other day my classmates and I had a night time Holy Hour at the grotto in the exact place Jesus was born. That was super awesome!! It was a beautiful prayer experience and a blessing to pray there. I actually was essentially sitting in the Manger while praying looking at the star marking the place of His birth. Super cool! Another cool place that we have visited is the tomb of the Patriarchs. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Rebekah, and Leah are all buried there. Sarah might be also, I don't remember exactly. To be at the tomb of Abraham and Isaac, for me, was super cool. Classes have been pretty good so far in the Holy Land. I have a Spiritual Direction course and a course on Ecumenism. Both have been interesting classes. In a couple weeks my classmates and I will begin some more classes that will continue into the school year. It is a class on the Prophets and a class on the Gospel of John. Today was a pretty good day too. We visited the birth place of John the Baptist and had Mass there. We also visited the monastery of the wilderness which is believed to be the location of "the wilderness" John the Baptist spent his time in. Oh! speaking of this reminds me of something funny during Mass. Tons of stray cats are in the Holy Land. They are everywhere! I like cats, so I'm OK with it, but what was hilarious was during the homily, a cat actually walked into church and into the sanctuary during Mass. Now I've seen bugs before in Church and Mass, but a cat...this was new! We had a real nice lunch after Mass. I was worried originally that the food wasn't going to be that great in the Holy Land. It has far surpassed my expectations. I have really liked the food, and the breads! The breads, let me tell you. I love bread. To explain, if Olive Garden Breadsticks were an option on the menu at Olive Garden with say a Coke, I'd be set. So here they have a lot of fresh breads and pita breads. They have all been super good on their own, but the "salads" they have given us to dip them in...super delicious! OK everyone, enough about food, or I'm going to need a late night snack, and we don't have any bread laying around or Portillo's close by, so that may be problematic. I'm going to get ready for bed. The internet as I mentioned isn't great here, so I haven't been able to load many photos on my Flickr page. However, if you want to see my Guatemala pictures in the mean time, scroll down into some older blogs and you will see the link. Pax.
AMDG
~Chris
Hi Everyone!
Sorry I haven't blogged for a while! I have been doing lots of different things during my stay and I would like to give y'all an update. First I will mention the stars. Living at home in an area with a lot of light pollution and other things in the air, you don't get many opportunities to see the stars. Well here, that's a little bit different. The stars are super clear at night, and the moon is the brightest I've ever seen it! It is neat to be outside at night and just look up and see a beautiful night sky full of lights. OK, time to complain a little. Instant Coffee. No me gusta. That is really all they have for us though. Coffee by the pot I have come to find out isn't that common here, at least where we are staying and the places I've gone. I have found a way to mix one of the instant packs with some Nesquik powder. This allows me to make the coffee more tolerable and relive my childhood at the same time. There is a coffee shop though which is close by that makes a pretty good mocha. That's a great place to go and study while I'm here. It also has great wifi internet which is a gift! The internet where we stay isn't the greatest, so to be able to stop and browse the net or Facebook like at home, while drinking a mocha, is pretty legit. The other day my classmates and I had a night time Holy Hour at the grotto in the exact place Jesus was born. That was super awesome!! It was a beautiful prayer experience and a blessing to pray there. I actually was essentially sitting in the Manger while praying looking at the star marking the place of His birth. Super cool! Another cool place that we have visited is the tomb of the Patriarchs. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Rebekah, and Leah are all buried there. Sarah might be also, I don't remember exactly. To be at the tomb of Abraham and Isaac, for me, was super cool. Classes have been pretty good so far in the Holy Land. I have a Spiritual Direction course and a course on Ecumenism. Both have been interesting classes. In a couple weeks my classmates and I will begin some more classes that will continue into the school year. It is a class on the Prophets and a class on the Gospel of John. Today was a pretty good day too. We visited the birth place of John the Baptist and had Mass there. We also visited the monastery of the wilderness which is believed to be the location of "the wilderness" John the Baptist spent his time in. Oh! speaking of this reminds me of something funny during Mass. Tons of stray cats are in the Holy Land. They are everywhere! I like cats, so I'm OK with it, but what was hilarious was during the homily, a cat actually walked into church and into the sanctuary during Mass. Now I've seen bugs before in Church and Mass, but a cat...this was new! We had a real nice lunch after Mass. I was worried originally that the food wasn't going to be that great in the Holy Land. It has far surpassed my expectations. I have really liked the food, and the breads! The breads, let me tell you. I love bread. To explain, if Olive Garden Breadsticks were an option on the menu at Olive Garden with say a Coke, I'd be set. So here they have a lot of fresh breads and pita breads. They have all been super good on their own, but the "salads" they have given us to dip them in...super delicious! OK everyone, enough about food, or I'm going to need a late night snack, and we don't have any bread laying around or Portillo's close by, so that may be problematic. I'm going to get ready for bed. The internet as I mentioned isn't great here, so I haven't been able to load many photos on my Flickr page. However, if you want to see my Guatemala pictures in the mean time, scroll down into some older blogs and you will see the link. Pax.
AMDG
~Chris
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