If you ask Father Raymond Gormley, pastor of Incarnation Parish, Mantua, about his first pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he’ll say, “I was on cloud nine to walk where Jesus walked.”
Father Gormley recalled highlights from that inaugural Holy Land pilgrimage, noting his joy visiting the Basilica of the Annunciation, Nazareth; Jerusalem’s Via Dolorosa “where I led the Stations of the Cross,” he said; Calvary, where Christ died on the Cross, and the Tomb of the Holy Sepulchre, where the Lord rose from the dead. A liturgy in the tomb proved to be an especially grace-filled moment, Father Gormley said.
“I remember how Bishop Sullivan celebrated Mass in the inner chamber and 10 priests were just outside the tomb area,” he said. “When we received Holy Communion, I thought, ‘It is the risen Christ in the tomb, right here.”
Faithful of the Camden Diocese are invited to experience a similar spiritual joy and reverence during a planned pilgrimage to the Holy Land Feb. 9-18, 2023, with an extended travel option Feb. 18-23 to Assisi and Rome. Bishop Dennis Sullivan and Father Robert Hughes, diocesan Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia, will lead pilgrims at stops including Tel Aviv, Stella Maris, Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee and Jordan River, Mt. Tabor, Jericho, Jordan River, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Bethany, Dead Sea, Mount of Olives, Gethsemane, Mt. Zion and the Western Wall, among others. The post trip includes visiting the birthplace of Saint Francis of Assisi, and Mass in Rome’s St. Peter’s Basilica with a visit to the Vatican Museums.
A pilgrimage can be enriching to those of all ages, Father Gormley insisted.
“Life is the ultimate pilgrimage. We follow the path taken by others,” he said. “A pilgrimage evokes inside of you a change of heart; you’d have to be pretty hard-of-heart not to have a different perspective, no matter what your age.”
That change of heart is the difference between a religious pilgrimage and a mere vacation tour. Father Gormley shared a photograph he had snapped while on a pilgrimage to Ireland that illustrates that very point. Attached to a mossy stone at the base of Croagh Patrick, County Mayo, a plaque quoting the Book of Lismore reads, “Going on pilgrimage without change of heart brings no reward from God, for it is by practicing virtue and not mere motion of the feet that we will be brought to heaven.”
“Saints like Monica and Francis of Assisi took pilgrimages, and they traveled for years,” Father Gormley concluded. “We can take a plane and get there in 10 hours. It is the chance of a lifetime.”
For more information, visit www.pilgrimages.com/frhughes/holyland/2023.
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