Holy Land 2019

When Fr Ferran suggested a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, their excitement was immediate. After years of preparation, with everyone’s effort and the prayers of family and friends, some thirty pilgrims flew to Tel Aviv on 29 July 2019. They went with the parish of Santa Maria del Mar in Palamós and its parish priest, Fr Pedro Narbón, and with a sherpa, Pedro Judez. Mary’s letters went with them, and they wanted to walk the way from Nazareth to Bethlehem, similar to the one Joseph and Mary might have made before the Child was born.

Through Palestine

They spent the first night at the convent of the Sisters of Nazareth; from the coach they had already seen the Basilica of the Annunciation lit up in the middle of the night. Then came five stages from north to south through Palestine, in scorching heat. At every stage they were welcomed by the small Arab Christian communities, with a faith that was “deep, unshakeable and surprisingly joyful”, and many people offered them water, food or a place to rest. Simón, a Palestinian Catholic who was their back-up car, prayed the Rosary with the car stereo at full volume while the minarets recited the Arabic prayers: if they could, he said, he wasn’t going to be outdone.

Sychar, Duma and Zababdeh

The way gave them little-visited places, such as the well of Sychar, in Nablus, where Jesus met the Samaritan woman. In Duma, in a region with no Christian presence for miles around, they celebrated Mass in a park, probably the first Eucharist in decades in that area: for Joan, it was like “bringing Christ back to his land”. And in Zababdeh a half-full swimming pool was waiting for them: afterwards they found out that the man in charge of the site had spent three days filling it with water from the tanker lorry, because there is no running water there, keeping hardly any for himself.

Jerusalem

The entry into Jerusalem, on 5 August, on the last stage, was etched on everyone’s heart. They had started walking in the dead of night and went through the deserted, silent streets as far as the Holy Sepulchre. With the church almost empty, they prayed for an hour on Calvary, at the foot of the Cross, and one by one they queued to kiss the hole where the cross stood, while Fr Ferran whispered a few words in each person’s ear for them to meditate on in prayer. There, says the presentation of the pilgrimage, they laid down all their burdens.

A couple of days later they arrived in Bethlehem, where the route ended. In the grotto of the Nativity they celebrated Mass with the readings and prayers of Midnight Mass. They had accompanied Our Lady from Nazareth to the place where she gave birth to the Saviour, and St Joseph had often come up in their conversations along the way too.

With the families

Then the parents and families joined them for a week of visits and prayer: the road to Emmaus, Mount Tabor, the Stations of the Cross through the streets of Jerusalem, Mass on Calvary and at the Annunciation in Nazareth, adoration at the Basilica of the Nations, in Gethsemane, the renewal of baptismal promises by the Jordan and a boat crossing on the Sea of Galilee. At a vigil in the Garden of Olives, the group sang songs in Spanish and some Latin Americans joined in: “wherever we are from, we are all united in the great family of the Church”, writes Albert.

They came back to Barcelona convinced that this pilgrimage, in fact, would never end. Joan sums it up like this: “Everything in the Holy Land points to that admirable and undeserved exchange by which God became like us so that we could become like Him”.