Day #1 - we continued our pilgrimage traveling around the Sea of Galilee to visit the Mount of Beatitudes, Tabgha, the Chapel of the Primacy of Peter, Capernaum and the River Jordan Baptism site. At the Mount of Beatitudes we celebrated Holy Mass and I was honored to give the Homily - it was fantastic! Facing our pilgrims with the Sea of Galilee in the background - what an experience to have Holy Mass outdoors on the Sea of Galilee.
We then went to Tabgha to the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and the Fishes where that miracle is commemorated
Next stop was the Chapel of the Primacy of Peter where we visited the chapel with a massive rock in front of the altar - representing Peter as the Rock upon which Jesus would build His church
Outside behind the Chapel was the Sea of Galilee and a few of us ventured into the water.
As mentioned above all these sites are around the Sea of Galilee - a fact that had escaped most of us previously. We never knew that these important Holy sites were so close together. We stopped for lunch - again on the Sea and some people ate Saint Peter's fish pictured below.
Church of the Beatitudes
Deacon Dale - Father Matt - Deacon Jerry
Our Pilgrims at Holy Mass
Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and the Fishes
Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and the Fishes
Chapel of the Primacy of Peter
Deacon Jerry & Deacon Dale
St. Peter's Fish
Next stop was Capernaum where we viewed the ruins of the temple and St Peter's Church that is built over the home of St Peter's mother-in-law's house. The church is built on stilts over the ruins of the original structure to preserve the ruins. The floor of the church above has a rectangular glass floor which is used to view the ruins below.
St. Peter's Church exterior
St Peter's Church inside - note glass floor in center
Next door to St. Peter's church is a group of ruins and just to the side of that is the ruins of a temple which had been constructed over the remains of a previous temple.
Temple Ruins
Father Matt relaxing in the temple
Walking around the ruins and the church we again noted that this property is also on the Sea of Galilee
Deacon Dale & Chaplain Arlene
Boarding the bus - we then headed towards the River Jordan to complete the day. The events at the river will be covered in the next posting.
Deacon Dale
