familypilgrimblog

The heavens declare the glory of God;

the sky proclaims its builder’s craft.

Psalm 19:2

I spent some time this week going through all of our flights.  It was rather nerve wracking.  We will be on 6 airplanes total during this pilgrimage.  On the way there, we will be spending approximately 15 hours on these planes and 16 hours on them on the  way back.

This pilgrimage will involve traveling through 4 different airports in 3 different countries.  My research tells me that we will be spending some time in one of the world’s nicer airports.  My research also tells me that we will be spending some time in one of the world’s not-so-nicer airports.  The other two airports are really just very average.

The air travel portion of this pilgrimage is leaving me rather exhausted and we haven’t even left the ground yet.  Our children are accustomed to long trips by car, but they have only flown once and it was only for a few hours.  Every travel forum that I have read on air travel speaks of people who do not like to fly with children.  In fact, many people are very adamantly against wanting to fly anywhere near children.

I think our kids should be ok, but I cannot guarantee that they won’t whine or cry at some point.  In fact, I can almost guarantee that they WILL whine or cry at several points during all of this flying.  Airplanes are small and uncomfortable.  I think many adults would whine and cry if they had the option while they are flying.

I am curious, do you have any tips for me to help make the flying portion of our pilgrimage more tolerable and less painful for everyone involved, especially our fellow passengers?

God Bless!

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life,

what you will eat (or drink), or about your body, what you

will wear.  Is not life more than food and the body

more than clothing?  Look at the birds in the sky: they do not sow

or reap, they gather nothing into barns,yet your

heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not more important than they?

Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to

your life-span?  Why are you anxious about clothes?  Learn from the

way the wild flowers grow.  They do not work or spin.  But I tell

you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them.

If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and

is thrown in the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you,

O you of little faith?

Matthew 6:25-31

I cannot begin to tell how many times this passage has come into my mind over the past couple of months.  I am not a shopper.  I am especially not a clothes shopper.  Buying clothes for me has always been a burden. I don’t like the way they look on me and I certainly don’t like spending money on them when I could buy other things like books or groceries.

An even bigger burden is buying clothes for my husband and five children.  We live in such a small town that clothes shopping comes at the price of traveling to one of the larger towns.  This price involves gas, time and often crabby children who have inherited my non-shopping gene.

To say I was worried about what we were going to wear on this pilgrimage would be an understatement!

Thank God for the internet!  I admit that I rely on on-line shopping for many of our clothing purchases.

In doing my research on Israel, I learned that what we will need for our pilgrimage is a little different than what we would need for a typical summer day here.  When entering any religious sites, men and women are required to have their knees and shoulders covered.  This means capris and longer skirts or dresses for the girls as well as little sweaters or scarves to cover tank tops.  The boys will need long pants for many of our days.  Seeing that the temperatures will be 80 degrees on up, these will have to be lighter weight.

For the younger girls, this was not a problem.  They love, love wearing skirts and dresses and don’t really care where they fall on their legs.  The teenage daughter however is feeling a little bit challenged by the clothes she will be allowed to wear.

And I haven’t even mentioned the need for a sunhat…

Anyways, my husband is planning on using the points he has collected from his Cabela’s card to purchase the clothes he and our teenage son will need.  By the way, the teenage boy isn’t too terribly happy with the clothing restrictions either…

The girls (including me) are all done.  Our suitcases are packed.  The boys haven’t even started.  I am not going to worry (too much…).

I am glad that my part in this is done.  God definitely provided, I really had no need to be worried about what we were going to wear, O me of little faith!

Happy are those who find refuge in you, whose hearts are set

on pilgrim roads.

Psalm 84:6

There is no question of how we are getting TO the Holy Land Land.  Flying is the only feasible way to get our family to Israel.

The big question was how on earth are we going to get around once we are there.  My initial plan was to rely on public transportation.  I had a really, really bad experience with renting a car when I was traveling in England with my husband’s family.  My husband’s brother drove the car and it was awful.  Simply awful.  I dreaded each time we had to get back into the car and then as soon as we got out, I kissed the ground.  I decided right then and there that I would never, ever ride in a rental car in a foreign country again.

And so I set about my plan for exploring this new-to-us land:

From the airport, I discovered that the best option is to take a sherut.  This is a shared taxi which holds 10 people.  There are other options.  A private taxi is much more expensive.  The train is a scenic, but slow way to get to Jerusalem.  The bus is an option as well.  But, after my research, it seemed that the sherut is going to be the way to go.

In Jerusalem we will be able to rely on public transportation, walking or even the possibility of renting bikes.  There is a brand new light rail system in Jerusalem.  I have been reading there have been some issues with this, but I am kind of hoping they are ironed out by the time we get there.  If they are, we will probably rely on this form of transportation.  There is also a very reliable bus system which would be acceptable as well.  I have told the kids to be prepared for lots of walking.  The location of our hostel puts us in walking distance of many things.  The bikes?  We’ll have to see about that.  All seven of us ride without training wheels now, so maybe this would be fun too.

Our pilgrimage is going to take us to Galilee for four days right in the middle of the trip.  I looked into taking a bus to Nazareth, which is where we will be stationed.  There is one that went there.  Late in the afternoon.  We would lose a whole day in the Galilee.  There are few direct busses to the smaller cities surrounding Nazareth and there are times the bus drops you off miles away from the places we want to visit (the Sea of Galilee, Cana, Mount of Beatitudes, etc.).  If was just myself, my husband and the teenagers, this might be ok.  But, I can’t ask a 5 year old to do that.

I did some reading and it seemed like renting a car to drive to and around the Galilee was going to be the best option.  The people on Tripadvisor promise that driving in this part of Israel is not difficult and essential to see everything you want to.  I was looking on the website of our hostel and saw that we could rent a car through them.  One simple e-mail and it was taken care of.  Our 7 passenger minivan will be dropped off at the hostel and then we drop it off back there when we come back to Jerusalem.

This is requiring a HUGE amount of faith on my part.  I have to remember that my husband is not his brother.  He will drive carefully and will do everything he can to keep us safe.  From what I have read, the people at both of the hostels we are staying at are very helpful with travel advice.  We will be in God’s hands!

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Our original plan for this pilgrimage was to go during Holy Week.  I could not imagine a more special time to be in the very spot that Jesus walked.

A few obstacles arose:

There were no rooms available anywhere (again, showing how naive I am about planning a pilgrimage)

Our oldest balked at missing school (I really don’t blame him)

Friends (and our priest) warned of the crowds, it would be just too much for the kids

And so, we changed our plans.  But, this is something I still want to do.  Someday…

For this year, though, Holy Week will be spent at our own parish.  It has become my favorite time of the year.  I love the Holy Thursday and Good Friday masses: the incense! the cross!.  Last year was the first year we had gone to the Easter Vigil on Saturday evening: the candlelight! the baptisms! .  It was absolutely beautiful!  And of course Easter Sunday: the flowers! The music!

We are going to do two very special, new things this year.  On Holy Thursday, the children at the elementary school will be doing the Living Stations of the Cross.  I have two girls there.  Right after that, we will head over to the middle school because parents of 8th graders are invited to celebrate their annual Passover Meal with them.  Our 8th grader has promised there will be cake! (Along with the unleavened bread and grape juice, of course)

Do you have anything special planned for Holy Week this year?  I am wishing you a very Blessed and Holy Week!

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus

that the whole world should be enrolled.  This was the first enrollment,

when Quirinius was governor of Syria.  So all went to be enrolled,

each to his own town.  And Joseph too went up from Galilee

from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David

that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David,

to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.

While they were there, the time came for her to have her

child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son.  She wrapped

him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no

room for them in the inn.

Luke 2:1-7

We were going to go to Bethlehem.  It was obvious!  It was a given!  Why even go to Israel if we weren’t going to go to the very place Jesus was born?

These statements all show how naive I was before I started planning this pilgrimage…

Geographically speaking, Bethlehem is only about 6 miles away from Jerusalem.  It takes about 15-20 minutes to drive there depending on the traffic.

What I didn’t realize is that you have to cross the Palestinian Border to get into Bethlehem.  We will need to bring our passports to cross the border.

From some of then research I did, I realized we wouldn’t be able to make this trip alone.  If we were not with a tour group, we stood the risk of being accosted by people wanting to take on tours of the Holy Sites for money.  It wasn’t pleasant and could even be a scary situation.

After looking into the bus tours, I was floored at how expensive it was going to be for our whole family to get in the city where Jesus was born.  Wow!  I really, really hadn’t expected this and realized, sadly, that we might just have to take this out of our plan.

Luckily, there is a happy ending to this story.  As I searched the Website for our Hostel, I realized that they actually offered several tours.  Cheaply.  With a discount for people staying at the Hostel.  I e-mailed them immediately and booked our tour to Bethlehem.

We aren’t going on a donkey like Mary did.  And our trip won’t be as long or arduous as hers.  But, the planning was much harder than I thought it would be.

I can’t wait!

Lord, you have probed me, you know me:

you know when I sit and stand;

ou understand my thoughts from afar.

My travels and rest you mark;

with all my ways you are familiar.

Psalm 139:1-3

Right after booking the flights,  finding a place for us to rest our weary bodies every night was the greatest challenge of planning this pilgrimage.  As you can imagine, finding a place for our family to stay is never easy.  Most hotels cringe when you tell them you have five children.  We never fit into a standard room.  It is tricky and expensive for us to stay in two rooms.  I have been given the advice to fudge on how many people we have.  But I am unable to lie, I feel that is just wrong.

So, instead, I turned once again to the Memorare.  Again and again.

After doing research, I realized that we really had four options:

1.  Hotels

2.  Apartment/house rentals

3.  Convents/Monastery

4.  Hostels

Believe me when I say I spent many hours on TripAdvisor researching each and every one of these options.  After all of this quality time with my computer, I determined that staying in a convent or monastery was going to be able to provide the best atmosphere for our pilgrimage.  And so, I started sending out e-mails to every convent and monastery in Jerusalem and the Galilee looking for rooms.  Most came back saying they were full.  I discovered that people book their pilgrimages years in advance.  But three came back with offers.  They all had curfews.  All put us in separate rooms.  I hemmed.  I hawed.  Mostly, I prayed.

I booked the rooms.

And then last weekend, I sat at the table with my family playing Apples to Apples.  We are loud.  We laugh.  Loudly.  Sometimes we cry.  Loudly.  There are some of us who scream randomly.  Loudly.

It dawned on me: we are not a convent type of family.

It was back to the drawing board.  The other option I had always kept in the back of my mind now came to the forefront.  I e-mailed the Hostels, again, one in Jerusalem and one in Galilee.  They both had rooms available.  They both could put all of us in one room.  The Hostel in Jerusalem has an attached bath and a mini fridge in the room.  There are no curfews.

But, it really came down to one thing:

Laundry.

At the convents, I was looking at washing all of our clothes in the sink every night.  The Hostel in Jerusalem has washing machines and dryers.

I booked the rooms.

I have to admit that on the one hand I am kind of disappointed.  I was really looking forward to staying in the convents.  And if it were just my husband and I, we would.  But, I have to remember that there are five other people along for the ride.  It is unfair to expect them to be quiet at all times.

And so, we have our rooms and I am at peace about it.  They may not be Catholic per se.  But, neither are they fancy.  They are simple.  They are humble.  They are perfect for a family of seven on pilgrimage.

I have read that you do not choose Pilgrimage, but you are rather called to Pilgrimage.  The timing is always God’s and it is always right.

When I felt the call, I immediately wondered: why now?

The answer quickly became obvious.

Our 17 year old son was confirmed in the Catholic Church yesterday.  He only has one more year of high school left and then he will leave our family to start his life on his own.  This is a time of  incredible discernment for this this child.

The fact of the matter is that each and every one of us in our family will be affected differently by this pilgrimage.  All seven of us.  But, only one of us is in the throes of such major life changes.  God is calling all of us, but God is especially calling him.

I cried during the mass yesterday.  I looked over and saw a tear in my husband’s eye as well.  Our children are growing up.  I am so proud of them.  I am excited to see the people they will become.

Now is the time.  We have been called.

I am blessed to have a brother who is a world traveler.  There are few places on this planet he hasn’t been and as a result, has also been to most of the airports as well.

As I studied our flight schedule, I realized that we were going to have an overnight layover in one airport.  I checked their website and discovered that they had rooms to use to sleep in right there in the airport.  But, I wanted my brother’s advice.

During our conversation, I could hear a little voice in the background.  I figured it was his son, my 4 year old nephew.  Sure enough, this little guy was listening in to what his Dad was saying.  Every once in a while, my brother would stop talking to me to answer a question of his.  “They are going on a trip.  They are going where Jesus lived.” I head him explain.

After this particular exchange, my brother came back on the phone laughing.  “He just asked me: Are they going to Heaven?”

How sweet is that?

God Bless!

Then the children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray

The disciples rebuked them, but Jesus said, “Let the children come to me,

and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Matthew 19:13-14

The flights are booked!  The flights are booked!  We are going to Israel!  We are going to Israel!

It finally seems real…

One of the first things I did when we made the decision to make a pilgrimage was start researching airlines.  We are not frequent fliers and so I really had no clue about booking flights.  I spent way too much time on our local airport’s website, Trip Advisor and Kayak (among other sites).  It was exciting to see who would have fare specials and when they would have them.  But then it seemed like no one was ever having fare specials to Tel Aviv!  It was both exciting and frustrating at the same time.

I turned to my family and my well-traveled neighbor for advice.  They told me their favorite airlines, which were different than the airlines I had been looking at.  More time was spent on my computer researching all of this new found information.

I turned to prayer.  And more prayer.

Tonight we have seven tickets to Israel.  As my husband and I clicked on the “Book” button, he said “Well, there’s no turning back now!”  I really think someone needs to pinch me, because I still cannot believe it is true!

I told the little girls after they had their showers and we had prayed our evening Rosary.  The teenagers aren’t home tonight, but I will let them know when they get back.

These three were pretty excited because I had made a promise to them: they could have a peek at their brand new passports as soon as the flights were booked.  The passports are a really, really big deal for these girls.  The day we went in to the courthouse to fill out the paperwork, they got all dressed up for their pictures.  They also made passports for their dollies and stuffed animals, the ones who are lucky enough to being going on pilgrimage with us.  They had waited a long time for this day.

As they looked at these official documents in awe, I said to them, “You know, not many kids your age have one of  these…”  As I was getting everyone ready for bed I heard, “You know, not many stuffed dogs your age have one of these…”  I had to smile and chuckle a little to myself.

Booking these flights have taken a lot of stress off.  I know the fact that all of the timing worked out and that we were able to stay within our budget is a fruit of the time spent in prayer.  God’s hand was all over this!  I may have done the research, but He made it work.

God Bless!

I am planning on writing several posts on our family’s preparation for our pilgrimage to Israel.  Flights, rooms, food, packing.  All of these things will need to be done.  They all involve physical preparation and are very necessary.  Some are done already, most are not.  We have given ourselves six months time for all of these.

As important as preparing physically for travel, it is even more important to prepare ourselves spiritually for pilgrimage.

The Memorare has been my “go to” prayer since the beginning, when we first decided we were embarking on this adventure.

MEMORARE

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never

was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored

thy help, or sought thy intercession was left unaided.  Inspired

with this confidence, I fly to thee, O Virgin of virgins, my

Mother; to thee do I come; before thee I stand, sinful and

sorrowful.  O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my

petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me.  Amen.

I have asked for Mary’s intercession every step of the way and I plan to continue.  How Blessed we are that we have the Mother of our Lord to go to and intercede for us!

God Bless!