Holy Land offers myriad pilgrimage sites

Walking in the steps of Jesus is what a pilgrimage is all about, and to do that literally requires a trip to the Holy Land. From Nazareth to Mount Cavalry, there are dozens of shrines and other holy sites that beckon to pilgrims.

If he had only three days in the Holy Land, Anthony Nachef, owner of Proximo Travel, a Catholic tour company, would start in Jerusalem, which offers the Way of the Cross and the Church of the Resurrection (Holy Sepulchre,) then visit nearby Bethlehem.

On the second day, he would visit the Sea of Galilee, Mount of Beatitudes, Capernaum and the Church of the Primacy of St. Peter.

The third day would be devoted to Nazareth and Cana.

Of all these famous sites, the Mount of Beatitudes is his favorite place, he said. "When you are standing on the Mount of Beatitudes, you are far away from all the pressure of Jerusalem. You’re in a very peaceful place and you feel at peace."

The beauty of a different mountain attracted Nora Mancuso, who visited the Holy Land in 2005 on a pilgrimage led by Archbishop George Niederauer. The Mount of the Transfiguration is "awesome," she said. "It was so beautiful to be up there and looking out over the whole place and imagining what it must have been like for Jesus and the disciples who went up there with him. It must have taken them all day to get there, or longer, because that’s a pretty high mountain."

For Deacon Mansueto Flaim and his wife, Mary Ann Flaim, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was the highlight of their pilgrimage; they also went with Archbishop Niederauer.

As members of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, they had a special bond to the shrine, Mary Ann Flaim said. She was lector at a Mass celebrated at the tomb, and "That was really special," she said. "It’s something I’ll always remember."

Likewise, her husband was deacon at all the Masses celebrated during the pilgrimage. "It was just something like you dream maybe, and just never happens, but this just happened," he said. "The Holy Spirit just took over."

By law, tour guides in the Holy Land must be licensed, Nachef said. He recommends that pilgrims take a guided tour because "you want people to be focused on having a good time, enjoying the spirituality of the pilgrimage and not worried about their temporal affairs for 10 days."

The Flaims agreed; both praised their guide and the organizer of the trip. "You get more out of a 10-day pilgrimage like that, about your faith, about the history of it all, than you do in a lifetime of going to religious ed classes," Deacon Flaim said. "It’s so powerful because you’re there, you see it, you experience it."