Holy Land Alumni Tour

What is the beginning or the end of a pilgrimage? When does life start? What was the first miracle? Creation? The Cana wedding? Why begin our pilgrimage in Nazareth rather than Bethlehem where Jesus was born?

Just as with any pre-birth preparation, our hearty band of Wartburg alumni, friends, and family had been preparing for this journey for some months. As we drove into the Gallilee area I realized that our journey was not one merely of distance, but through time. How appropriate then, that we should begin in Nazareth where time and place met, where God reached into humankind to create a new life that would save us for eternity, where the angel announced to Mary that she was impregnated by God with the Savior of the World.

We think of Nazareth most often as the town where Jesus grew up, but it is also the site of the Annunciation, or rather two announcements: one of the pregnancy, and one to assure Joseph and to ask that he serve as earthly father of this new and very unique family. And as has happened so often with God's church over the years, there are several Churches of the Annunciation, where "it really happened." There's an Orthodox one, a Roman Catholic one, and another one dedicated to Joseph. Meanwhile there is Mary's well nearby, where some say she really received the Word.

As it occured it was Sunday and as it occurred, our brief time in the RC sanctuary was at the exact time of the Eucharistic Prayer during the service in Arabic. I had feared I might miss the Eucharist this Sunday, but there we were, right at the right time, at the right place, as the Host was elevated. Fear not, I said to myself, this is going to be SOME journey.

Barbara E. Solt,
friend of a Wartburg alumna