The Seven Day Holy Land: Stand at the Empty Tomb, Sail Galilee, Renew Your Baptism

We are waiting for you as you land, and we bring you to your hotel to rest. There is nothing to do tonight but arrive, and let it settle in that tomorrow you begin walking the land you have read about all your life.

Your first morning opens on the Mount of Olives, with the whole of the old city spread golden below you. It is the view every pilgrim remembers. You walk down the hillside to the Garden of Gethsemane, where the ancient olive trees still stand and where he prayed on the night he was betrayed. People often grow quiet here.

After lunch, you step into the walled Old City and walk the Via Dolorosa, the way of the cross, through the narrow streets to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built over both Golgotha and the empty tomb. To stand here, on your first full day, is to arrive at the very heart of it all.

"He is not here; he has risen, just as he said." (Matthew 28:6)

This morning a short drive brings you to Bethlehem and the Basilica of the Nativity. You bow low through the Door of Humility, the small stone entrance that makes everyone stoop, and come to the silver star that marks where he was born. Nearby lie the Shepherds' Fields, where the angels first announced the news.

In the afternoon you return to Jerusalem, to the quiet green of the Garden Tomb, where your group can gather to take communion together in the open air. This is the day the story stops being far away. You have knelt at the birth and stood at the resurrection between one sunrise and sunset, and something settles in you that does not leave.

"She gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger." (Luke 2:7)

This morning you travel down to the Jordan River at Qasr al-Yahud, the traditional place of the baptism of Jesus on the western bank, across from Bethany beyond the Jordan, to the water's edge where pilgrims come to renew their baptismal vows. It is a gentle, moving moment, and many describe it as the day their faith felt washed new.

From there you go to the Dead Sea, the lowest place on the whole earth, where the water holds you up without effort and the salt and mineral air is famous for its healing. After time to float and rest, you begin the drive north toward Galilee, watching the desert slowly turn green.

"As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened." (Matthew 3:16)

This morning belongs to the Sea of Galilee. You board a boat and sail out across the same waters where he called his first disciples and calmed the storm, and often the engine is cut so you can simply drift in the quiet. You visit Capernaum, the little lakeside town he made his home, then climb the gentle Mount of Beatitudes where the Sermon on the Mount was preached.

Lunch by the shore is the traditional St. Peter's fish, caught from these very waters. The afternoon leaves room to take in the calm of Galilee, so different from Jerusalem, and the place where so much of the teaching was born.

"Come, follow me, and I will send you out to fish for people." (Matthew 4:19)

This morning you come to Nazareth, the town where Jesus grew up, and visit the Basilica of the Annunciation, built over the place where the angel came to Mary. There is time to sit quietly with what began here, in an ordinary town, with an ordinary girl saying yes.

After lunch you begin the journey back toward Jerusalem, watching the green Galilean hills give way to the pale Judean ones, with time along the way to let the whole week settle into something lasting.

"He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up." (Luke 4:16)

The morning is yours until we take you to the airport. Seven days ago you arrived a traveler. You leave a pilgrim, carrying a faith that has touched solid ground, and you will never read the Bible the same way again.