Today marks one week since we left Mundelein for the Holy Land Pilgrimage. We continued our schedule of Morning Prayer, Mass, and breakfast with a brief break before classes. In Spiritual Direction we learned about religious experiences and conversions: what questions to ask in spiritual direction, compared St. Augustine's stages of conversion with Lonergan's stages of being, Hans Gradamer's stages of experience, and St. Alphonsus Ligouri's teaching on aridity. Between class and lunch some of the men can be found playing "hacky sack" while others relax in the lounge, catch up on emails, or go for a walk. Some of the men make a visit to the Basilica of the Nativity for a short prayer. Our afternoon class in Ecumenism continued to cover dialogue among Christians and other religions. We focused on the similarities and differences between the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church in regards to doctrine, communion, sacraments, liturgy, etc.
In the evening, we did our site prep for our trip to Tel Arad, which will take place tomorrow. This will be the first archeological site we will visit in the infant stages of our pilgrimage. You can find Tel Arad in the bible in Numbers 21:1, 33:40, Joshua 12:14, and Judges 1:16. Please continue to keep us in prayer as we continue to pray for all of you.
Thanks for the Biblical references1 I'm going to look them up, then Google Tel Arad, then look at Zach Weber's photos. Prayers for all of you, of course!--Monica
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