Scottish Catholic Observer

This October nearly 200 pilgrims from Scotland will embark on a remarkable pilgrimage to the Holy Land. This national pilgrimage—led by the president of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, Archbishop Philip Tartaglia of Glasgow, to mark the Year of Faith—will allow Scots to follow in the footsteps of Jesus.

“I am very much looking forward to visiting the places which form part of our culture and our Faith,” Archbishop Tartaglia told the SCO. “A trip to the Holy Land can be a unique way to bring the scriptures to life allowing us to re-read the great stories of the Gospel with new insight and understanding. Coming as it does at the end of the Year of Faith, the pilgrimage promises to be a wonderful journey which will enrich our Faith and inspire us in the paths of the Gospel.”

The pilgrimage—proving to be very popular but with some places remaining—will leave Glasgow on October 8 and pilgrims will fly directly to Tel Aviv. The eight-day trip will take in the Sea of Galilee, Nazareth, Bethlehem, the Dead Sea, Jerusalem and much more besides.

The trip is being organised in part by Alex Mosson, former Lord Provost of Glasgow, who has led pilgrimages from Glasgow Archdiocese to the Holy Land for many years.

“There are still places available and it’s never been easier to get to the Holy Land,” he said. “We’re flying direct from Glasgow to Tel Aviv, no stops, and the flight is just over five hours. If you think about the long circuitous routes pilgrims took to get to the Holy Land in years gone by, it’s almost miraculous how easy it is for us to travel there.”

He said he is sure everyone who goes on the trip will ‘get a lot out of it spiritually.’

“It’s an opportunity to see the birthplace of Christ to see where He walked and preached the Gospel and I have found the Gospels really start to come alive when they see those things,” he said. “The way Jesus and the Apostles suffered allowed us all to be Christians.”

The continuing presence of Christianity in the Holy Land is also hugely important to Mr Mosson.

He also has a special message to any of his fellow Glaswegians who might be thinking of joining the pilgrimage. “Glasgow is twinned with Bethlehem,” he said

Another veteran of pilgrimages to the Holy Land—who will once again make the journey later this year—is Fr Tom White, parish priest of St Mary’s Church in the Calton region of Glasgow.

“There’s something special about the Sea of Galilee,” he said. “You can sit on the Mountain of the Beatitudes and see it unchanged, we will take a boat out upon the sea and travel the same waves as Jesus did and it’s very easy to imagine the Lord there, addressing us.”

Despite the power of the past, he also believes that the present of the Holy Land has much to teach us.

“The conditions some of the Palestinians live under are shocking but it is amazing how human people can still live and survive,” he said.

He also thinks that travelling to the Holy Land with fellow Scots as part of a pilgrimage will have maximum impact.

“It is good to travel with your own folk,” he said. “And more, I think it is a theme of the Year of Faith that we are called as pilgrim people of God, and that is an identity I think we can work at rediscovering.”

—To book or for further information, please contact: Special Pilgrimages “Christian Tours,” 55 – 57 Queens Road, Southend-on-Sea, Essex SS1 1LT. Telephone: 01702 394000. Fax: 01702 395000

Website: www.special-pilgrimages.co.uk

Email: [email protected]

— This story ran in full in the June 7 print edition of the SCO