Group first mass in Galilee

It was a small crisis, but one which could have been problematic for the plan to say mass on the Sea of Galilee.

"I had been told that the boat we hired would provide the essentials for saying mass, but I've just heard that they don't," Fr Michael Murphy, leading the Kilcullen parish pilgrimage to The Holy Land, said.

Which was why he climbed aboard the bus this afternoon with a bag of bread rolls, negotiated from the hotel kitchen. As it happened, a Mass 'kit' was found to be available in the coach luggage compartment, so all went off in the normal way.

The 'sea' of Galilee is actually a medium sized lake, and according to the biblical accounts it was to the northern part of it that Jesus came to begin his ministry. Many of the stories of those early days in his short few years of work relate to this place.

It was where he met his first 'follower', Mary Magdalene, as well as several others later. Where he is said to have performed a number of miracles. And where he met his disciple Peter for the first time ... also for the last time, because it was in this same area that the story is set of his appearance to his disciples after the Resurrection.

Fr Murphy celebrated mass out on the lake for the group. As he did so, he noted the difference between a tourist and a pilgrim.

"A tourist goes through a place, while a pilgrim lets a place go through him," he said. "Let us pray that we will let the holy places which we visit here in the next few days go through us."

The mass on a boat is a traditional pilgrim event here, and generally is an introduction to the stories from the time of Jesus and his founding of Christianity.

The group enjoyed the afternoon, despite signs of a threatening thunderstorm, which if it had happened could have added just one more element to one of the stories we all learned as children.

Reported from Galilee by the Accidental Pilgrim.