Holy Family Community pilgrimage to the Sea of Galilee


Father Bienvenido OFM, chaplain of the Holy Family Community in Nazareth, reports on a pilgrimage the community members made to the Sea of Galilee on Sunday, November 22, 2015.

hfc caphernaum

The Filipina Benedictine Missionary Sisters of the Eucharistic King celebrate annually their patronal feast day on the Solemnity of Christ the King. Together with other Filipino communities in the Holy Land, the Holy Family Filipino Community of Nazareth was invited to their celebration at Tabgha on November 22, 2015. The HFFCN, therefore, took advantage of the occasion to make a short pilgrimage as well to two other sites along the Sea of Gailee; namely to the Mount of Beatitudes and to Capernaum.

We left Nazareth with a hired bus at around 7:00 a.m., passing by Afula to get the majority of those who joined the trip. Around an hour later, we arrived at the memoria of Jesus’ proclamation of the Beatitudes according to the Matthean tradition. The explanation on the site and the reading of the Matthean version of the Beatitudes were done right beside the bus before going to the Chapel, where a holy Mass was about to finish.

From the Mount of the Beatitudes, we proceeded to Capernaum, the centre of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee. We visited first the new church in the shape of a boat, built on top of the ruins of the octagonal “domus-ecclesia” or the house of Saint Peter, which eventually became a house for religious gatherings. After a short individual silent prayer, we prayed one Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory be for the intentions of Pope Francis.

Then we moved to the ruins of the 5th-century AD synagogue. During the final excavations in the second half of last century, older buildings over which this synagogue was built were found, indicating the location of the structure constructed by the centurion and frequented by Jesus. It was here where the Fourth Gospel located Jesus’ discourse on the Bread of Life from heaven after the multiplication of the loaves at Tabgha. We had an abbreviated reading of the said discourse in John 6, at the end of which we sang the hymn “I will raise him up”, capturing some elements of the Eucharistic discourse.

Finally we drove to nearby Tabgha, where the memoria of the multiplication of the loaves is celebrated. Members of the other Filipino communities in Israel were already there and the choir from Our Lady Woman of Valor in Tel Aviv was practicing the songs to be sung during the Mass. There was a slight delay in the arrival of the main celebrant, Bishop Giacinto Boulos Marcuzzo, one of the Patriarchal Vicars of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, and his companions, because of a checkpoint along the way. Three Benedictine monks and three Filipino priests, including me, concelebrated with the Bishop. At the end of the Mass, lunch was served to all the guests in the garden of the shrine at the back of the property. After lunch, a short program took place, after which all of the guests left for their corresponding places of origin. Our group, however, made a short detour to visit Yardenit, a resort south of the Sea of Galilee, from which the Jordan River flows down to the Dead Sea. This place has been recently developed due to difficulties to visit the traditional location of Jesus’ baptismal site near Jericho.

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