The last day of our 10 day pilgrimage - a day spent traveling - a long day of travel. Adjusting for the time difference - we left Israel around noon time on November 1st and returned to Chicago and back at St Patrick Church about noon time November 2nd - almost twenty-four hours. Five of those hours were spent at JFK airport in New York - between flights. Besides the hours spent on the planes - everything went like clockwork. There were no delays - no equipment problems - all happened as scheduled. Our tour guide was excellent! Our bus driver - very helpful and courteous. It is interesting to note that these two men - who spent six continuous days with us - worked so well together - with each other - with our group - both from Palestine - one a Christian - the other a Muslim - destroyed the idea that Christians and Muslims cannot get along. As explained by our guide - the conflicts we read about in the Holy Land - nothing to do with religion - everything to do with politics - who controls the power - the money - peoples lives. For this pilgrim - I returned home joyful - joy filled - a most excellent adventure. Our twenty-six pilgrims - excellent travel companions - the eleven pilgrims picked up in Tel Aviv - a pure blessing to our group. Together - all thirty-nine of us - became a small family - sharing our belief in the One God we all worship.
2018 Holy Land Pilgrimage Group
To wrap up our pilgrimage we once again took time to worship Our Lord by celebrating an impromptu All Souls Day Mass before we departed our own way.
Praying Our Way Through Israel and Back Home
Deacon Dale
