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Nov. 22 to Dec. 3, 2024

Pilgrimage to the Holy Land




November 22 to December 3, 2024 Pilgrimage

November 22 to December 3, 2024 Pilgrimage

(Scroll down or click here for May 22 to June 1, 2025 Pilgrimage)

Roy will be leading a  pilgrimage to the Holy Land November 22 to December 3, 2024.

Roy's pilgrimages are distinctive in that they have the Traditional Latin Mass daily, highlight the Jewish roots of the Catholic Church, are kept small (limited to 24 pilgrims), stay in religious houses whenever possible, and in all aspects are designed to maximize prayer.

Price including roundtrip airfare from New York City only $3950 p.p.d.o. (with cash or check discount)

Click here to download full Pricing, Payment, Registration, and Legal Information

Click here to display flight information (subject to change)

Click here to download daily itinerary





Daily Mass will be in the Traditional Latin Rite

The focus on Prayer is what makes this pilgrimage different:

·       Our group is limited to 26 pilgrims, ensuring a prayerful, recollected and intimate atmosphere.  (Other groups can have 50, 100, or 200 along). 


DETAILED ITINERARY FOR NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2024 HOLY LAND PILGRIMAGE

Friday November 22: We meet up at JFK airport (New York City) for our flight to Tel Aviv on Air France. Flight departs at 5:30pm, allowing most to fly in the same day from their originating airport.    (Note: NYC departure airport and time subject to change until 60 days before departure.) Arrival at airport at least 4 hours before flight time is recommended.

Each day of our trip, we will have breakfast and dinner at the pilgrimage house where we stay, and a Traditional Latin Mass celebrated by our accompanying Priest at one of the shrines we will be visiting.

Saturday November 23:  We land in Israel at 2pm, and proceed on a chartered motor coach to our lodgings overlooking the Sea of Galilee at the very peaceful “Beth Haccerem” Pilgrim House. Dinner, Mass, and bed. 

Sunday November 24
and Monday Nov. 25:  We have two days to visit and pray at the Holy Places around the Sea of Galilee. The precise order depends on the altars we are able to reserve for Mass each day. Our visits will include:
•    Capernaum, the town where Jesus lived during much of His public ministry (Mt 4 and 8, Mk 1-2, Lk 4 and 7), praying at the home of Peter (where Jesus stayed) and in the Synagogue there where Jesus gave the “Bread of Life” discourse (Jn 6), and will see the ruins of the ancient town.
•    Tabgha the spot where Jesus multiplied the Loaves and Fishes prefiguring the miracle of the Eucharist. Kursi on the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus cast the “Legion of Demons” out of the demoniac and into the swine who ran into the Sea (Mk 5, Lk 8). We will visit and pray at the cave where the demoniac lived, with some deliverance prayer if our Chaplain wishes.
•    The “Primacy of Peter” (aka “Mensa Christi”), where Jesus appeared after the Resurrection, prepared breakfast for the Apostles who were fishing, and told Peter “feed my lambs… tend my sheep (Jn 21).
•    The Mount of Beatitudes, where Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5-6)
•    Chorazin, the town Jesus cursed for its unbelief (Mt 11, Lk 10)
•    Safed, the world center of Jewish mysticism, praying in one of the medieval synagogues there. 
•    A sunset sail in a “Jesus boat” on the Sea of Galilee

Tuesday, November 26: Leaving the Sea of Galilee, we go to Mt. Tabor, the site of the Transfiguration (Mt 17, Mk 9, Lk 9), and Deo volente, celebrate our Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) in the Basilica there. (I request the particular altar but sometimes it is unavailable). Then onto Cana, where Jesus’ first public miracle, turning water into wine, took place. Those who wish can “renew” their wedding vows there. Then onto Nazareth, where we stay two nights at the “Rosary Sisters” Pilgrimage House, a short (but hilly) walk from the Basilica of the Annunciation. Each morning and evening, whoever wants usually can walk to the Basilica for private prayer directly in front of the Grotto of the Annunciation, only a few feet from where the Word became Flesh.  Usually we are the only ones there at those times.

Wednesday, November 27: We have a full day in Nazareth to pray at the Holy sites there.  In addition to the Basilica with the Grotto of the Annunciation, these include:

•    The recently discovered tomb of St. Joseph’s Tomb  (over which we will have Holy Mass)
•    Mary’s Well, where she went to draw water each day
•    St. Joseph’s workshop
•    The synagogue in Nazareth where Jesus read from the Scriptures, saying “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." (Lk 4:16)
•    The garden of the Poor Clare convent where St. Charles de Foucauld lived as gardener.

Thursday, November 28: We leave Nazareth for our final 4 days in Jerusalem, stopping on the way, security situation permitting, at Jericho*, at the very spot on the Jordan River where Jesus was baptized by John (Mt 3). Not coincidentally, it is also the very same spot where the Jewish people first entered into the Promised Land led by Joshua (Josh. 3), the same name as “Jesus” in Hebrew, and where Elijah crossed over and was taken up to Heaven in the fiery chariot (2 Ki 2). Then we will ascend the Mount of Temptation by cable car, to the cave where Jesus fasted and prayed for 40 days in preparation of His public ministry (Mt 4, Mk 1, Lk 4). It is now within an Orthodox monastery and church. There we will be able to pray at the very stone on which He sat while Satan tempted Him. Leaving Jericho for Jerusalem, we will stop to view the dramatic Monastery of Saint George, built in the 5th century over the cave where Elijah hid from Jezebel and was fed by ravens (1 Ki 17), and also at Bethany, visiting the house of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary Magdalene (now a church) where Jesus often stayed, including during Holy Week.  We may be also be able to descend to Lazarus’ tomb and pray there. Arriving in Jerusalem, we will check in at our Pilgrimage House in the heart of the Old City a short walk from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where we will stay for the rest of the trip.

N.B. During our time in Jerusalem, we will be staying close enough to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to be to walk there each morning before breakfast for an hour or two of private prayer, and before dinner for the same. There we can pray at the tomb from which Jesus Resurrected, the literal Foot of the Cross, the stone of the Anointing, at the pillar on which Jesus was Crowned with Thorns, etc. Deo volente, those who wish may also have the opportunity to spend the night in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre being locked in, with permission, at 7pm when it closes until 5am when it reopens.

Friday, November 29 through
Sunday December 1:
We have 4 full days in Jerusalem.  There are incredible altars available to pilgrimage groups there – at the foot of the Cross on Calvary, inside the Tomb itself in the Holy Sepulchre, on the stone where Jesus sweat blood in Gethsemane, etc.  I request these altars, but it is up to the shrine when they grant them to us, so I schedule the particular days around the altar times we get for Holy Mass (Traditional). The following are typical of our days in Jerusalem, but which day is when depends on the altar assignments. Remember, each day can begin with several hours of quiet prayer in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, if one so desires.

Friday November 29: in and around the Old City:
•    praying the Stations of the Cross at the original stations
•    St. Anne’s house (birthplace of the Blessed Virgin Mary)
•    the Pool of Bethzatha (Jn 5) where Jesus healed the man ill for 38 years
•    the Church of the Flagellation, where Jesus was whipped under orders of Pontius  Pilate
•    Ecce Homo, where Pontius Pilate displayed the scourged Jesus to the crowd
•    Gabbatha, the pavement in front of Pontius Pilate’s Palace where the Jews cried out “His blood be on us and our children”
•    the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (where we are often able to have Mass)
•    the Jewish quarter and praying at the Western Wall
•    the Church of the Dormition, where according to Catholic tradition the Blessed Virgin Mary fell asleep and was assumed into heaven
•    St. Stephen’s Priory, where St. Stephen was stoned shortly after the Crucifixion (Acts 6 and 7)



Saturday November 30: Spent in Bethlehem and Ein Karem
Bethlehem, visiting and praying at:
•    the Birth Cave (in the Basilica of the Nativity) where Jesus was born
•    the Milk Cave where he was nursed by the Blessed Virgin Mary
•    Shepherd’s Field where the shepherds heard the angels announce the birth of the Messiah.

After lunch in Bethlehem we proceed to Ein Karem, where we visit and pray at:
•    the home of Elizabeth and Zachariah (now a Church) at the very spot where John the Baptist was born
•    the location where Mary encountered Elizabeth and the Visitation took place
•    the “hideout” of John the Baptist in the wilderness
•    the Tomb of the noted Jewish Catholic convert Alphonse Ratisbonne

Sunday December 1: The Old City, starting on the Mount of Olives:
•    the site of Jesus’ Ascension (Acts 1) on the top of the Mount of Olives
•    the Pater Noster Cave (Lk 11) where Jesus taught the disciples the Our Father
•    Dominus Flevit (Lk 13) where Jesus wept over the failure of the Jews to accept Him and the destruction of Jerusalem
•    the Church of the Agony, over the very stone on which Jesus prayed the night before His crucifixion, and sweat blood (Lk 22)
•    the Cave of Betrayal, where Peter, James and John slept while Jesus was undergoing the agony
•    the tomb where, according the Orthodox tradition Mary was entombed before the Assumption.
•    Gallicantu, praying in the very prison cell under Caiaphas’ house (Jn 18) where Jesus was taken right after the Agony in the Garden, and at and on the very steps in front of the palace that Jesus was dragged up that night.

Monday December 2: Free to revisit places. If there is interest, Roy may take those who wish to Yad Vashem (the Holocaust museum).  After an early supper, we depart Jerusalem for an overnight non-stop flight back home, arriving very early morning on Tuesday, December 3.

Please note: This is not a typical “pre-programmed” pilgrimage tour. The sequence of visits and how long we spend at each holy site is determined by the prayer we experience there, when where our Masses are scheduled, the preferences of the group, the inspirations of our Priest, and unforeseen opportunities presented by the Holy Spirit.  Itinerary details subject to change


·      
For full details, registration form, etc. go to:


·      tinyurl.com/RoyNovember2024  or blog.siftj.org or Roy's website:  www.salvationisfromthejews.com


·      or email Roy at pilgrimage@salvationisfromthejews.com



       * itinerary details subject to change




See photos from the May 2023 trip at https://tinyurl.com/RoyMay23  !