SUN 24 OCT 10    Depart from Washington DC according to flight arrangements.
 
MON 25 OCT 10     Arrive Tel Aviv ISRAEL in the afternoon and after Passport Control, be greeted by our guide and driver.  Drive north along the Mediterranean Seacoast to Haifa.  Check into The Carmelite Home, Stella Maris on Mount Carmel.  Father will celebrate Mass before dinner and overnight.  You will have time to pray in Elijah’s Cave!

 

TUE 26 OCT 10    After breakfast, depart for Tabgha where Our Lord fed the 5,000 men with 2 loaves and 5 fishes.  Continue to The Primacy where he asks Peter, "Do you love me?" and then to the Mount of Beatitudes where Father will celebrate Mass.   We’ll take a boat across the  the Sea of Galilee after our included lunch.

    In the afternoon,  drive to Mount Tabor,  to visit Antonio Barlucci's magnificent church and meditate on The Transfiguration where Jesus revealed His Glory. 

We’ll stop by Yardenit on the Jordan River to renew our baptismal promises, before going to Nazareth to check into our hotel.  Dinner and overnight.

 

WED 27 OCT 10   Cross the street to the  Church of the Annunciation.  Father will celebrate Mass in front of the Grotto where The Word Became Flesh.  After breakfast visit the upper parish church and the  museum built over the village of Nazareth.  Stop at Joseph's Carpenter Shop, and then walk through the town where Jesus grew up, and continue up to the Synagogue Church to read scripture and pray before walking to  Mary’s Well in the Greek Orthodox Church and then enjoy included lunch in a local restaurant.      

    In the afternoon, drive to the Wedding Church in Cana where Father will renew the wedding vows of our couples.  Return to Nazareth for dinner and overnight.  After dinner, experience praying the Rosary near the Grotto where Mary ‘heard The Word.’  

 

THR 28 OCT 10    After breakfast, depart the Galilee and head south through the Jordan Rift to  Jericho to see the Mount of Temptations and the remains of the oldest city in the world!    Celebrate Mass in the desert then have a lunch break and enjoy the wonderful local abundance of fresh fruit.  Continue  down to Qumran to visit the excavations of the Essene’s  community and see the caves where the Dead Sea scrolls were found in 1947. After lunch,  take a break by the sea and have the opportunity to ‘float’ in the mineral-laden waters of  the Dead Sea.  We continue up to Jerusalem  and check into our hotel for dinner and overnight.

 

FRI 29 OCT 10     After breakfast, start on the Mt of Olives and walk down from the place of the Ascension to the Carmelite Convent where we remember Jesus teaching the Our Father, and continue down to Dominus Flevit where He wept over the city, and down to Gethsemane.

    We’ll continue to Bethlehem and enjoy our included lunch before visiting the oldest Christian church in the world, built over the place where Our Lord was born. We’ll then drive down to   Shepherd’s Field where Father will celebrate Mass  and also have time  to shop in one of the big Christian stores before returning to Jerusalem for dinner and overnight.

 

SAT 30 OCT 10   After breakfast, we'll drive to Ein Karem to visit the birthplace of St. John the Baptist and then climb to the Church of the Visitation where Mary went to help her cousin Elizabeth.  Father will celebrate Mass for us here.   Stop at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem to visit the Children's Holocaust Memorial and Garden of the Righteous.  

    After lunch, continue to the Israeli Museum and see the Dead Sea Scrolls and a 1/50th scale model of the city at the time of Christ. 

Return to the hotel for dinner and overnight.

 

SUN 31 OCT 10   After breakfast, we drive around the city walls once more to Mt Zion to visit Dormition Abbey where “Mary Slept” and the Upper Room.

                        Father will celebrate Mass at the Franciscan property of the Cenacle.  

        In the afternoon,  walk and pray the Via Dolorosa through the streets of the Old City up to Calvary and the Holy Sepulchre. 

        Join the Franciscan for Benediction and then have some free time before we return to our hotel for dinner and overnight. 

 

MON 1 NOV 10      After breakfast, drive around the city walls to the Dung Gate and enter The Old City in the Jewish Quarter and visit the Western Wall.   See many Jewish boys coming to celebrate their Bar Mitzvah here today. After, walk up onto the Temple Mount where Jesus taught and prayed; where he was presented by his parents after birth; where he was tempted by the Devil to throw himself down; and, where he was angered by the money changers. Today on this Moslem property we find the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. We pass the closed Golden Gate as we leave and enter the Crusader church of St. Ann’s and the Pools of Bethesda.  

            After lunch visit St. Peter in Gallicantu where Father will celebrate Mass.  This is where our Lord was held by the high priest when he was arrested. Have time for prayer and meditation before either driving or walking back through the Armenian Quarter to our hotel.  Dinner and overnight in Jerusalem.

 

TUE 2 NOV 10    Father will be the Celebrant for the Latin Mass with the Franciscans at the Holy Sepulchre  then we'll return to our hotel for breakfast.

                              ENJOY A FREE DAY IN JERUSALEM.

 

WED 3 NOV 10    Time to depart for homes with many memories to Give Thanks and Remember.