You are invited to take a pilgrimage* to the Holy Land with
Fr. DeGrood as your spiritual director.

February 7 - 17, 2011
(registration form)

*Currently restricted to parishioners of St. Peter's, Forest Lake

There is no place on earth like the Holy Land; the birthplace of history and the great monotheistic  religions of the world.  Here you will sense the very soul of humanity.

This is a land of physical beauty and contrast - truly  God’s land. We will savor peaceful Galilee - the land of Jesus' ministry - including Capernaum, Mt. Tabor, Nazareth and Cana.  We will pass through the fertile Jordan Valley with the barren mountains on both sides.  We will stop at the Dead Sea, the lowest spot on earth, and Qumran, site of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Nothing will ever prepare you for your first visit to Jerusalem.  The Jewish devotion at the Western Wall next to the Muslim Dome of the rock; the Muslim call to prayer sounding as one enters the Church of the Holy Sepulchre; the striking provincialism of the various Christian rites, each seeming to compete for God's attention.

We will celebrate Mass in many special places: at the Grotto of the Annunciation in Nazareth, on Mt. Tabor at the site of the Transfiguration, at the Church of St. Peter built above the ancient structure of Peter's house, on Mt. Beatitude where Jesus delivered his Sermon on the Mount, and in a number of the wonderful churches around Jerusalem.

Above all, you will find that the Scriptures will come to life for you, not just while you are there, but when you return home as well.  Stories of the Old and New Testaments take on new and exciting meaning.  Places from the very dawn of history will be  fixed in your memory; places where God's Son walked on the earth.