Holy Land -- the last mass
"As we come to the end of the journey we will find that life will never be the same again," Fr Michael Murphy said at the final mass of the recent Kilcullen Parish Pilgrimage to the Holy Land, at Abu Gosh where Jesus is said to have appeared to his disciples after the Resurrection.
The mass was held in the Benedictine Church of the Resurrection, on a hill overlooking the way the Kilcullen pilgrims had come from Jerusalem on their way to Tel Aviv Airport.
"We have come into contact with 'the Fifth Gospel', a physical reality which has touched us in a very deep way and will leave us changed," Fr Murphy added. "The greatest gift we can bring from here is a lighter step as we go along the path of our life. We know now what Christ endured for you and me and all of us, so that we too might rise to that new life."
Fr Murphy added that the 'balance is in our favour' for achieving this. As the group moved on, its members should ask themselves what is in their hearts, what did they really want to bring from here?
"What memory, what experience from this pilgrimage?" he wondered, and then suggested a thanksgiving. "We pray that our experience will give us the strength to bear the tribulations that are part of the human condition."
Fr Niall Thornton asked that the grace which had been 'given in abundance' would help all to 'penetrate the materialism that may be surrounding us in our lives'.
"And I thank all of you," he said to the participants. "It has been a great privilege to share with you an experience beyond words. I hope you will all bring to your friends word of this beautiful land, and of the powerful work of Jesus."
The Accidental Pilgrim
[NOTE: I had forgotten to write about this last pastoral occasion on the pilgrimage. This definitely is the final piece.]
