Well, I don’t know how it happened but it did. I didn’t delete it, nor did anyone that I know of delete it. But somehow, the article previously posted under this title has been deleted. So, let’s try it again.
It might just be that a pilgrimage to the Holy Land is safer than your own neighborhood! I’m not kidding. For example, on my previous post about this subject, I relayed a story about a man who was stopped for driving with explosive liquids in the car. That search triggered another search, this time of his apartment, and there police found 17 explosive devices. I also mentioned that while seaching his car, they found narcotics and a .45 caliber pistol. Drugs, bombs and guns… sounds like a recipe for disaster to me. Galilee? Not, that was in California. (Read more at Foxnews.com)
Across the beautiful for spacious skies, amber waves of grain, purple mountain majesties and the fruited plains one might plant their roots in the land of peaches. One might want to have a hose ready in their back yard as well. Why? The very same day that California residents within three blocks were evacuated, ruining their morning coffee, one Georgian set fire to another Georgian’s back yard, and house, because of an argument they had about his grass being too long. (Read more at 11Alive News) Now, granted, normal neighbors may complain about your yard yet not set fire to it. But is your neighbor normal? Who knows.
My point is, after a quick read of the morning headlines, every morning there are some pretty horrific happenings in the land of the free and the home of the brave. We will not soon forget the terrible Boston bombings or the savage shootings in Newtown- and these in renowned, civilized New England.
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| Foxnews.com Photo |
You see, many people do not make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land because they are afraid. Why are they afraid? Because it is commonly portrayed that that which is happening in one part of the Middle East is happening throughout the whole Middle East, including the pilgrimage sites. The reality is the pilgrimage sites are very quiet and peaceful. Will an occassional scuffle break out between Christians in front of the Tomb of Christ? Sure. But brothers will be brothers right? Rare is the operative word here.
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| Old City, Jerusalem |
Come to the Holy Land on pilgrimage. See for yourself the places of the Paschal Mystery. As I told fellow pilgrims one day, “Most times we’re safer here than at home. And if we go, well, what better place to leave from than the place where Jesus himself died- and rose again.