![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/DSC03274.jpg\" "\\"Plain")
<\/a>Entering the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth<\/p><\/div>\n
Mother Katherine brought a book with brief descriptions of the holy sites, a passage of Scripture describing what took place there, and a brief prayer.\u00a0 I was still in tourist mode, enjoying the antiquity and the feel of the place when she handed me the book and asked me to read. \u00a0No problem, I thought.\u00a0 I was caught by surprise not to be able to make it through even a few sentences without choking up.\u00a0 I had to ask her to finish reading.\u00a0 What was that all about?<\/p>\n
<\/a>The well where the angel spoke to Mary<\/p><\/div>\n
From there we walked to a modern Catholic basilica built over the historic site of Joseph\u2019s house and shop.\u00a0 This structure was as disappointing as the first church was quaint and holy.\u00a0 The massive church\u2019s colors, concrete and steel, attempted to be beautiful-modern but only looked industrial-ugly to me. \u00a0In fact, Nazareth itself is mostly a largish, Israeli-Arab city with lots of traffic and people and shops: not a place to imagine a carpenter\u2019s son helping his father in the workshop or playing in the hills with his friends.<\/p>\n
Next stop was Cana, site of the wedding feast at which Jesus turned water into wine.\u00a0 Surrounded by citrus trees and grape vines, this cute white church was tidy, like a well pruned rose bush.\u00a0 In the front of the sanctuary were two large stone jars believed to be some of the jars filled with the wine Jesus changed from water.\u00a0 The heavy, waist-high stone vessels once held a lot of liquid.\u00a0 According to Church tradition the groom at the wedding was Simon the Zealot who later became one of Jesus\u2019 disciples.\u00a0 Soon, a woman came out to sell candles and bottles of wine.\u00a0 The wine labels said Cana-in-Galilee and had an icon of Christ at the wedding feast.\u00a0 We bought a few to help support and maintain the church.\u00a0 Our Cana wine, which undoubtedly had once been water, had been changed to wine by the God-given process of fermentation, good enough for me.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Mother Katherine and a pilgrim in front of a stone jar at Cana<\/p><\/div>\n
From there we drove to one of the more spectacular sites on our trip, Mt. Tabor.\u00a0 This is the site where Jesus was transfigured.\u00a0 Tabor is as much a mountain as the Sea of Galilee is a sea, but to say hill or lake robs a bit of the grandeur which both have in spite of their names.\u00a0 I wonder if that\u2019s a good image for so much in the Holy Land.\u00a0 Many things here seem small or insignificant, but as I stand in their presence they loom large.\u00a0 This is definitely true of Mt. Tabor and the Sea of Galilee.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Approaching Mt. Tabor<\/p><\/div>\n
Mt. Tabor stands alone, an isolated, high, mounded hill you can see from miles away.\u00a0 A small Arab community, through which you must drive to find the narrow, snaking, barely two lane road wending its way to the top, nestles at its base.\u00a0 At the peak are two churches, one Orthodox, the other Catholic.\u00a0 The Catholic one is built on the ruins of an ancient church and is surrounded by the ruins of an ancient monastery.\u00a0 Nearby, the Orthodox church and monastery are behind a high wall and tall gate.\u00a0 Thankfully we were with two nuns who helped us get in. \u00a0(When I returned during Christmas holidays with our three children, we knocked for awhile until a nun came to the door.\u00a0 After a bit of an interview, she determined that we were real pilgrims and not just gawking tourists.\u00a0 It was like we were undercover agents identifying ourselves at a remote base, possibly another apt image.)\u00a0 The church itself is beautiful.\u00a0 The icons, which cover every inch of wall and ceiling, are wonderful, colorful, exquisite images of events from the life of Christ, and of saints.\u00a0 The hushed, holy feel of the place gave me comfort.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Iconography at Holy Transfigruation Monastery, Mt. Tabor<\/p><\/div>\n
Upon leaving Tabor, we drove directly to Tiberias, first built by the Romans on the shores of Galilee during Jesus\u2019 life, today a hotel and restaurant filled sea-side resort town.\u00a0 From Tiberias we turned left and headed north on a curving road along the water\u2019s edge to Capernaum, to a monastery where we would spend the night.\u00a0 The monastery is managed by one Greek monk, Fr. Irinarchos, an energetic, smart, holy man, probably about 40 years old.\u00a0 He single-handedly keeps up the grounds and church at the site of ancient Capernaum, the city Jesus used as a base during his ministry.\u00a0 There is nothing left of Capernaum now except for some archaeological sites.\u00a0 Standing on the shore of Galilee, looking at the contours of the surrounding hills, seeing birds fly over the water, I realize this is probably much closer to what Jesus actually saw than Jerusalem which has been destroyed and rebuilt and expanded many times in the last 2,000 years.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Sunset over the Sea of Galilee<\/p><\/div>\n
We take our things to our rooms (one for the girls, one for the boys: ah, monastery life!), then watch the sun set behind the hills west of the Sea of Galilee.\u00a0 After supper in Tiberias, we returned to the monastery, weary pilgrims laying ourselves down to sleep, praying the Lord our souls to keep.\u00a0 As He will.<\/p>\n
Next: The Accidental Pilgrim, part 2:\u00a0 Mount of Beatitudes, Jordan River A, Hippo, and Jordan River B.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Accidental Pilgrim, Part 1: Nazareth, Cana, Mt. Tabor, Capernaum November 2005 Hello from Jerusalem, We were thrilled when they offered to take us to Galilee.\u00a0 It was absurd that we\u2019d been in Israel for over a year and hadn\u2019t … Continue reading