Part One.
Israel. It's a place that pulls the Christian to feel closer to faith, to connect to the roots of one's faith.
Perhaps the strongest feeling of being connected to one's faith is the part of the trip where one visits the places that led Jesus to the Crucifixion.
Jerusalem
The capital city of Jerusalem has the most important religious places in the Bible, the ones that saw the denouement of Jesus' life.
Our first stop was the Garden of Gethsemane and the Basilica of Agony. The basilica enshrines a section of the bedrock where Jesus was said to have prayed before He was arrested. I've always heard about this place through the musical "Jesus Christ Superstar," but being there and entering the basilica, I became emotional seeing people in tears, praying inside. I felt Jesus' agony, frustration, and burden on His way to make the ultimate sacrifice.
A 20-minute walk from the Gethsemane led to the Old City of Jerusalem. Entering through the Lion's Gate led to the start of the Via Dolorosa, the path that Jesus took before His Crucifixion. The path has 14 stations, each marked so tourists would not miss it.
The route of the Via Dolorosa ended inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Seeing the Holy Sepulchre was very overwhelming. I am not a very religious person, but there was something about that place that just spoke to me.
Upon entering the Church, the Stone of Anointing, where Jesus Christ was washed after He was crucified in Calvary, was another emotional sight. Tourists knelt in front of the slab, with their hands and foreheads resting on it, eyes closed, and their lips were murmuring in prayer.
After waiting for my turn, I did the same – placed both hands and my forehead on the stone and said prayers for the health and safety of everyone on that trip and my family and friends back home.
I climbed the steep staircase leading to the Calvary. There, people queued to get a chance to place their hands inside the hole where Jesus' cross was said to be erected. I did the same.
Lastly, we went inside the tomb of Jesus Christ, which was situated in the middle of a round hall. There was a long line outside. Inside, no photos were allowed. It was dark and quiet. It was solemn. Staying inside for a few minutes was the perfect opportunity to pray and reflect.
It was the perfect way to cap off a memorable tour.
It was more of enlightenment and a chance to reflect. It was a blessing. Everything I knew about God before this trip was based on what the people around me were saying. Now, I know that God is with me because I was blessed to feel His presence.
Here are more places to visit for a more profound spiritual and religious experience:
Ramla
Not a popular place in tour itineraries, Ramla, the only town in that country founded by Muslims, is home to Jews, Christians, Muslims, and the Greek Orthodox, which is reflected by the places of worship of each faith.
There is an ongoing initiative by locals to boost the tourism of Ramla, which is an easy 25-minute car ride from Tel Aviv, where the Ben Gurion Airport is located.
Its name originated from the Arabic word for "sand." What makes Ramla special, especially to Christians, is it is said to be the birthplace of St. Joseph of Arimathea, the man who asked the Roman governor Pontius Pilate to allow him to take Jesus' body off the cross for burial after the Crucifixion.
Pilgrims visit the Franciscan Church of St. Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. Franciscan monks initially opened this hospice for Catholic pilgrims arriving from Europe in the 15th Century before a new church, the one you can see there today, was constructed at the beginning of the 19th Century.
Nearby is the Greek Orthodox Monastery of St. Georgius, built in the 12th Century and continues to serve Ramla's Greek Orthodox community. The church, constructed in the 19th Century, is dedicated to St. George, the saint who is believed to have killed a dragon that threatened the town.
I was awed by the beautiful paintings inside the monastery, but even more when bells rang as we entered it. According to our guide, Ron, the ringing was meant to welcome us, visitors.
Jaffa
Four kilometers from Tel Aviv is the old city of Jaffa, a prosperous port city with a bitter history. Our tour guide, Annat, described Tel Aviv as Jaffa's distant daughter. The two became separated when the Ottoman military expelled the Jews from the mainly Arab city. The rounds of violence and anti-Jewish attacks from 1921 to 1939 led to the increasing separation between the two populations.
Jaffa became unlivable, partly because of drugs and prostitution that thrived during that period. This trouble persisted until yuppies and artists bought land and started an economic recovery in the seventies. The city is now a hub for artists, with many museums and art galleries. Different works of art are displayed in the city's alleys. A prominent piece of art is the Suspended Orange Tree, a full-sized live tree hanging roughly one foot above the street and maintained through drip irrigation.
Scholars say Jaffa could be argued as the birthplace of Christianity. According to Acts of the Apostles of the New Testament, a man named Cornelius from Caesarea saw a vision of an angel who told him to send people to Jaffa and bring Peter, who was lodging with Simon the tanner. Cornelius did as asked.
Meanwhile, in Jaffa, just before Cornelius' men arrived, a hungry Peter fell into a trance and saw the heavens open, and a great sheet containing all kinds of animals came down. A voice told him to eat, but Peter didn't oblige, saying he had never eaten anything common or unclean. The voice replied, "What God has made clean, do not call common."
After this, Cornelius' men came knocking. Peter, still perplexed, pondered on his vision, and the Spirit told him to go with the men looking for him. Peter did and joined them back to Caesarea. Peter told the people there that while it was unlawful for Jews to associate with people from another nation, "God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean."
Hearing about this story and seeing the house of Simon the Tanner made me realize how one's belief can affect others – much like how Cornelius and Peter's faith in God opened the belief to others outside Judaism.
Magdala
Up north near the Sea of Galilee are the ruins of the newly excavated Magdala, a fishing city from which Mary Magdalene is believed to have hailed. The excavations started in 2006 and are still ongoing but seeing what remains of this old city is humbling, especially since I got a glimpse of how a prominent Bible figure lived.
Here, we saw the ruins of a synagogue where men and the local council met. Synagogues didn't become a place of worship until the temples were destroyed. Half of the ruins you can see here were from the original synagogue, while archaeologists built the other half on top of the original.
The Catholics own this historical site, hence the Duc In Altum: a Catholic Church on the site.
