Blessed is the Kingdom

Seeking The Kingdom In All Things

On Pilgrimage

A few months ago I received an unexpected call from my friend Sister Albertine Paulus. Sister Albertine is the former long time Director of Evangelization for our diocese and currently leads diocesan pilgrimages each year. Her call was to ask if I would consider going with her most current group as a spiritual director. After a few days of trying to figure out how to fit a trip to the Holy Land into my schedule and with the encouragement of almost everyone I know, I agreed to be a part of the pilgrimage.

It has been eleven years since I have been to the Holy Land, so I am eager to see what will be the same and what will have changed in that amount of time. My goal also is to post as much of our pilgrimage to the readers here so that you might share in our journey by praying for and with us.

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This entry was posted by on Friday, November 5th, 2010 at 9:48 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

About The Author

Fr. Christian is the pastor of St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Lenoir City, TN.

Comments

  • http://www.metanoia-mrc.blogspot.com/ Robin

    What a wonderful idea, for such a group to b accompanied by someone whose specific task is to serve as spiritual director. Our church has groups which have made several pilgrimages to various places, but I think that the spirituality experienced on those journeys has been uneven at best. I wonder if you might talk a bit more about your anticipated role.

  • Fr. Christian Mathis

    Hi Robin,

    There are actually several people designated as spiritual directors but I anticipate that everyone in the group will have things to share with one another with regards to our faith. Those from my own parish who will be going and I have already been talking in anticipation the trip.

    I am very happy that Sr. Albertine structures these trips as pilgrimages, rather than as tours. She is very intentional about making sure the reason for the travel, that being a journey of faith, is front and center. I anticipate much of my role to be leading prayer for the group and being a sounding board for the group.

    My first time to the Holy Land I was grateful to a fellow pilgrim, Sr. Sara Butler, who took the lead in our journey early on.

  • Carmen

    Have a safe trip!! Jose and I did a pilgrimage to Holy Land with Sister Albertine a few years ago. It was so meaningful and so spiritual, we still remember it like it was yesterday.
    We will be praying for you and all the pilgrims going with you. Enjoy!!!

  • http://www.emahlou.blogspot.com elizabeth mahlou

    What a wonderful trip you will have. I look forward to your posts. I was supposed to go to Jordan next week, but, sniffle, the US Embassy nixed that as too dangerous these days for government-associated personnel. I have SO many friends there that I am very nonplussed although I suppose the embassy may know things I do not. I therefore have two reasons to look forward to your posts. Enjoy your time there. How wonderful that Sister asked you.

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