Pilgrims’ Mass and Meet & Greet

Fr. Emilio, National Director of Radio Maria USA

This evening the Radio Maria/Holy Land 2018 pilgrims from the local area got together for the first time, at the Radio Maria station and national headquarters in Alexandria. Fr. Emilio said Mass for us at 17:00, then presided over a long meeting. There were a total of eight of our thirteen pilgrims present – the two from New York; one from New Iberia, Louisiana; one from Kansas (my wife’s sister-in-law); and a religious brother from Costa Rica – were not.

Fr. Emilio gave a long description of the pilgrimage. He has been to Israel four times, and assured any who had any doubts that it will be an unforgettable experience. He has flown Turkish Airlines, and dispelled any notions any of us might have had that it is some kind of second-class carrier – he said it has any amenity you can imagine. The meals provided at the hotels – which are very nice, he says – will be predominantly buffets, tending toward a lot of salads, vegetables, and very healthy fare. It turns out that once we get to Bethlehem in the later part of the trip, the family who runs our pilgrimage company, Nativity Pilgrimage, run the hotel, have restaurants, souvenir shops, etc. – in short, are very involved in every aspect of religious tourism. Fr. Emilio did advise that if we are planning on bringing back olive-wood Rosaries, etc., the prices there in Bethlehem will be much better than they will in Jerusalem – and of course there is time built-in to the first day in Bethlehem for that.

There was a lot of discussion about the logistics of meeting up at the beginning. The majority of us will be flying out of the States through the Houston airport. The two from New York will meet us in Istanbul; Brother Miguel (“Mike”) from Costa Rica will fly directly to Tel Aviv. There will be a couple of carloads headed down to Houston from Alexandria on the morning of Monday 13 August; since seats will apparently be assigned when we check in at the airport, and we would all like to sit together for the flight, there was some discussion of how to meet up there. We are going to use Fr. Emilio’s messaging platform of choice, “WhatsApp,” creating a Group just for us which we will use for coordinating things like that before and during the trip. So we will need to have our phones with us and enabled for international use.

After the meeting, we had a very good meal of lasagna, salad, brownies, and so forth, over which the two groups who will carpool from Alexandria nailed down when and where they would meet, what time they would leave, and so forth – as well as discussed the logistics of getting back home after we return. There was some debate about just hunkering down and driving back – but after most of 24 hours travelling even before we arrive back in Houston in the 19:00 hour plus time getting through passport control and so forth, I think the wiser decision was made to get through all that and hit the road, yes, but plan on just getting out of Houston then finding a hotel for the night. Otherwise, we would probably be sometime well after midnight making it back to Alexandria! – and I for one would have another hour to get home!

There was quite a bit of other discussion throughout, but it was all pretty common sense – appropriate dress for the climate (hot), including a hat and sunscreen; currency exchange; electrical issues; and so forth. I’m not even going to try to remember it all. I didn’t take notes for all that since it is pretty common sense.

They seem like a very nice group. I am really looking forward to this experience. Time is counting down – at this point, I think we are just less than three weeks out.