Author: Fr Matthew+

Mark Twain was disillusioned, bored and often disappointed by what he saw in the Holy Land. His book about being here, Innocents Abroad, was published in 1869. His preconceived notions about the size and scale of Biblical cities and the landscape here were greatly exaggerated by his Sunday School education. He presumed that Lake Galilee…

Yes it’s true. The places of the past are ready to receive visitors with fast food. With modern convenience and crowd control worthy of Disney, we took a sky lift to the top. Geologists, archeologists, historians, faithful pilgrims and Israeli military flock to this site for all it has to offer. We also made it…

We bathed in the Jordan River. Ok, most of us just dipped in up to our shins, but I testify that Mother Tina properly retaliated to some splashing hijinks that was started by yours truly. Most of us got fairly wet on this ride. We renewed our baptismal vows at the spot in the river…

There’s a fine line between a tourist and a pilgrim. That line is most blurred by the common use of cameras. A bus load of American pilgrims looks just like a gaggle of vactioners when shuttering away behind the lens. Even when we’re passing respectfully through a holy, historic church, our photographic life gives the…

I first heard about this lake and Jesus’ ministry around it from my grandmother, or as I called her, Mungama. As a kid, she taught me to sing “Peter, James, and John on a sailboat!” Followed by another repeating verse for a child’s song, “fished all night didn’t catch any fish”and concluding with a third…

I tasted fresh mustard seed from this wild, indigenous and prosperous ground cover here in Israel. I recalled how sharp and pungent it is. Is there something about being a Christian that is, or should be, sharp and pungent to our palate?

4,000 years old. The ancient city was just a hill, and only partly excavated. Not much to look at, so we only drove by. Our destination was the “Old City” right next door, closer to our time by 1,500 years. All told, Akko is one of the few continuously inhabited cities for almost 4,000 years.…

The apostle Peter didn’t know what to say when he witnessed Jesus shining like the sun on the mountain. He stammered about building booths and spoke like a man waking from a dream. The most sensible thing thing he could say when he couldn’t rely on his senses was simply, it’s good to be here.…