Renewed and Excited

This morning marked the end of our five day retreat, and the breakfast tables were full of lively conversation as we shared our experiences with one another. The last five days held great importance for us as we spiritually prepared for our upcoming ordinations as deacons in a few months, and we spent a lot of time in solemn prayer with guidance from our retreat director, Abbot Bataille. However, it's a relief to leave the seriousness of retreat behind, share how the Lord spoke to us this week, and start planning for the second half of our pilgrimage. God has clearly been doing great things in our hearts as we stayed with Him on this holy mountain of the Beatitudes and listened to His teaching. I feel renewed and excited to begin ministry as a deacon!

After breakfast, we traveled to a small Christian town in Galilee to attend Sunday liturgy at the Greek Melkite Catholic Church there. Not only is the Melkite liturgy somewhat mysterious and unfamiliar to us Roman Catholics, but it was also in Arabic! Even though it was difficult to participate vocally (I could recognize a few Amens and Alleluias), it was wonderful to prayerfully join the congregation in praising God, and to receive the Eucharist with them. Once again I was reminded of how the presence of Christ unites us with our Catholic brothers and sisters across the world, even across languages, cultures, and traditions.

The parish congregation made us feel welcome, and offered us coffee and cookies afterwards. The priest greeted us and told us about their town and parish, while his daughter translated for us. Yes, a Melkite priest can have a wife and kids!  The children of the parish were having "Sunday School,

" but they took some time to hang out with us. As the seminarians played soccer with the boys and baseball with the girls, we enjoyed one of the unexpected blessings of our pilgrimage so far: simple moments of fun with the locals.

Our pilgrimage is about more than just visiting historical and religious places and recalling ancient biblical stories.  Indeed, to discover the Holy Land also means encountering the people that live here now, sharing the very same land that was blessed by God, where Jesus came to preach and reveal the Kingdom of Heaven. Today the people of the Holy Land have different challenges, hopes, and sorrows as well as different religions and languages than in biblical times. But meeting the locals face-to-face helps us understand the living history of this place, and that history in turn allows us to understand its people. We begin to see how God is still at work among them, blessing them, preaching a message of love and peace, and exhorting them to build up the Kingdom of God and preach the Good News to all.