This Wednesday, October 12th, I’ll be leaving for my nine day pilgrimage to the Holy Land! I’ll be traveling with a group of about 25 pilgrims (3 from St. Joseph’s) and others from my previous parish and different parishes throughout the Archdiocese of Washington and the Diocese of Arlington. It will be my very first trip to Israel and I couldn’t be more excited to walk where Jesus walked and see the same sights that He saw so many centuries ago. I’ll be co-leading the pilgrimage with a good friend and classmate from my time at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary, Fr. Kevin Dansereau, Parochial Vicar at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Arlington, VA.
I was telling the students at our school that I’ve been trying to get to the Holy Land for 22 years! During my semester abroad in Austria in the Jubilee Year 2000, I was hoping to go but the University discouraged us because conditions were not safe there at that time. Then when I was a deacon at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in 2014, we were supposed to go to the Holy Land as part of the annual diaconate class pilgrimage. But yet again, conditions were not safe for pilgrims and the Rector changed to our trip destination to Rome and Assisi, which turned out to be a wonderful blessing. Then at my previous assignment, St. Francis Xavier in Leonardtown, I had planned to go in October of 2020. That time, it was COVID that cancelled our trip. All totaled, my pilgrimage has been cancelled four times because of COVID since 2020. So as you can imagine, this trip will be especially meaningful for me given how long I’ve waited to go to the Holy Land.
I see this pilgrimage as an opportunity to not only deepen my friendship with the Lord and know the Bible more intimately but it will also be a great opportunity to pray for your special intentions. Bringing other people’s prayer intentions is a special part of going on pilgrimage. If you haven’t already, I encourage you to visit the home page of our parish website, where you can find a link to send me your personal prayer intentions in a secure and private forum: https://stjosephbeltsville.org/holy-land-prayer-intentions
I will print out these intentions before I leave so I can carry them with me in my backpack to all of the holy places in Israel. Or if you prefer, you can drop them off in an envelope at the rectory. Please pray for me and know that I will be taking all of you with me spiritually on my journey!
