A note of gratitude

Looking at our time in the Holy Land, the first thing that comes to mind is gratitude. My classmates and I realize how blest we are to come here for an extended period of time. I’m especially grateful for being in places Jesus was and meeting the people of the area. It’s helped me grow closer in my relationship with our Lord. There is something special in seeing where our friends live, so that is also true in walking in the places where Christ walked. It really makes the stories come alive. As we are all preparing to be deacons and ultimately priests, one thing that has stayed with me these weeks is thinking about the apostles. Christ spoke to them asking them to come and follow him and they did.

The apostles trusted Christ in his mission. They did not know what their future would look like, they simply followed him and their lives changed. At least for me, I can be too concerned about looking to the future, I wonder where I will go or to what types of ministries will I be called. The apostles and their trust help remind me to just follow Christ today – tomorrow will take care of itself.

A great and unexpected grace for me has been talking with some of the locals. Most of these have just been short conversations like talking to shopkeepers, people at the sites we have visited and playing sports. The people have been very welcoming to us and we’ve learned more about their culture by speaking to them.

We’ve even been privileged to play soccer against another seminary and played volleyball with some students at a university. A number of them did not know any English, but it was good to play sports together. There is so much communicating in body language and they were all very gracious in playing. We had a light social with other seminarians from the region and we shared stories about seminary life, seeing both similarities and differences.

I’m excited for our remaining time here in the Holy Land. I am very grateful for this opportunity as it has strengthened my faith in Christ. Please pray for us and know that we are praying for you. Thank you!

Editor's note: While our seminarian pilgrims are on their canonical retreat in preparation for diaconate ordination, we'll be reflecting on powerful moments of clarity during the first four weeks of our journey. Please keep us in your prayers, and know that you are in ours.