By Pilgrim Natalie Ambrose
As usual we start at the crack of dawn, imagine a hot sweltering desert, Israel is nothing like that. Lauren and I are sitting eating mangos and discussing what needs to go in the blog. But it’s funny how the Middle East for us has always been this image of adventure, dessert storms, camels, war the basic image that Disney’s Aladdin planted in our brains. We find Israel to be nothing like those Arabian nights. In fact I would go so far as to say that Israel is a mini America except that it is busting at the seams with a long tradition of faith and culture that is still continued to this day, regardless of how westernized the region has become.
We start off on another huge day for adventure, I’m tired and want to catch up on sleep, but as always I get on the bus. Our first stop was the ruins at Corizan. Slightly uneventful as this part was, it’s incredible at the basic knowledge that you are standing in a place that people from 1000’s of years ago lived and prayed in. I think the highlight or me at this particular sight was the weird looking beavers, they were some sort of wild animal that was walking around the ruins, it was like a family of them. I have never seen anything like them in my life, I don’t even know what they are. For someone who likes chasing things, these furry little creatures were way too weird for me to want to follow.
Once again, I sleep on the bus as a way for me to catch up on much needed sleep. When I wake up we have arrived at the Franciscan Church. This is a church that was built up over the ancient house of Peter the apostle. Hot, bothered and tired I walk over to the church, I can’t even focus on what our tour guide is saying, the church is quite modern with a glass floor so that the congregation can see right through to Peter’s house. Making our way outside our chaplain Fr Simon sits us down and does a gospel reading under a tree, I honestly don’t think I was even paying attention, but as I gazed out at the Sea of Galilee as though my guardian angel kicked me in the backside, I realized how stupid I have treated this whole day so far. This Pilgrimage for me was a gift, a treasure, a miracle, that someone like me could even get this opportunity. I needed to treat each day and each thing that we did as a treasure, as a gift, as a miracle. What was I doing? I was being lazy, selfish and I was wasting precious time to fully experience this. I had come to the realization that I wasn’t putting in 100% to what we were doing. I was wasting a God given opportunity and this realization, that I may never get this chance again made me spring up to my feet and run. I ran back to Christ, present in the Church. I sat down in the heat and I prayed. I had never felt more energized, I looked at the House of Peter underneath this Church, I took photos – in short, I experienced.
Come the next activity planned for us, I was ready to go, still tired, I didn’t let this get in the way of the day. Where to? Why the Sea of Galilee of course! All of the Exodus pilgrims along with the other Sydney pilgrimage Shores of Galilee met up in three life-sized replicas of a ship that our Lord would have used. Together with the chaplains from both pilgrimages, Bishop Julian Porteous and His Eminence George Cardinal Pell we sailed out to the middle of the Sea and celebrated Mass together. What a beautiful Mass it was! There really isn’t quite anything like it, having partaken in a Mass on the Sea of Galilee, being where Jesus had been. It is a moment I will carry on in my heart for the rest of my life. After the Mass, what followed was somewhere between a high seas boat party, a celebration of Christ, with young adults from across Sydney all mixed together with really good Jewish music. There was dancing, laughing, and just a lot of fun between people who had just encountered Christ. Even the Cardinal was dancing! The Joy that filled our boats was incredible and no one wanted it to end. But like all good things, it did.
Onward bound for our loaves and fishes lunch. One would assume that this lunch would consist of your basic fish and chips meal to symbolize Christ’s miracle, well I can well and truly say that we got much more than we bargained for. The pilgrims pile into this beachside building and it feels like we are crashing a wedding reception. Beautiful tables all with wine glasses napkins and entrees prepared. We are offered two choices for our main, fish or Chicken Schnitzel. I decide to go with the chicken only because I had eaten fish the day before. Thank God in heaven that I ate the Chicken. The fish came out with head, scales and tail all still attached. Steamed cooked. I’m assured by Amy Vierboom that the fish was delish. I still remain cynical about this fact.
After a filling meal, we made our way to our last structured activity, a Church known as The Primacy of Peter. Tradition holds that this is where the resurrected Christ asked St Peter, three times “Peter do you love me?” I found this one of the most confronting experiences. Visiting a Church and praying is one thing, but the Cardinal organized for two seminarians in the church to enact this scene out and we the pilgrims to individually respond to this question in our own words. At first I was very critical of this, and didn’t understand why we would do this. As I was nearing the altar I could see the seminarian Daniel McCaughan fondly known to many as seminarian Dan. It’s finally my turn, what do I say? How much do I love my Lord? I take a deep breath and focus on how my faith in God makes me feel, I look up at seminarian Dan and say, “I love you my Lord, with all my might and all my soul for all eternity.” What an experience! For the first time I have vocalized to the world just how I feel, and it has made me realize just how important my faith is and how important for us to actually proclaim this.
What a jam-packed day! We all get back to the hotel and now need some R and R, time to hit the beach (Sea of Galilee) at our hotel. Ah the life of a Pilgrim! I have had so many late nights and early rises that my body just automatically knows that it will need to catch up on sleep after this whole pilgrimage. Sleep really has become over rated to all of us, I think we would much rather stay in each others company than go to sleep, some even say that the most important time is that time that we spend with each other. So with that, I bid you all farewell, there is a very serious card game that I must get to. God Bless.
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