The Blessings of Pilgrimage

            We are still at Notre Dame.  Having visited most of the sites we are now in the final days before we go back to Mundelein at the end of this week. We have been enriching our minds and our souls through our classes and prayers. Today we had two classes, The History of Israel and The Spiritual Pilgrim. These were our last classes here at Holy Land. We are now beginning to prepare ourselves, spiritually and mentally, for exams and for our return.

            It has been a blessed moment for us to be here on pilgrimage. We have enriched our minds with the geography, culture and traditions in which our Lord was born, lived, died and rose. We have been following his footsteps and now it is nearly the time for us to go out and proclaim the good news. In fact, as we are from different parts of the world, we shall bring this news to our different nations (Mt 28:19). Our understanding of the Scriptures has been enriched. When we read the scriptures, they now make more sense than they did before. This is because we now know the geography of the places mentioned in the Bible and we know the culture into which Christ was born. These are just a few of the fruits of pilgrimage. What else can we say? It can be said that ungrateful hearts dry out all graces. Therefore, we remain so grateful to God for this moment and we continue to thank everyone who has contributed to our ability to experience this wonderful pilgrimage. May God bless you all.