I was honored to receive a Garco Scholar Liberal Arts grant. It is intended to promote excellent teaching in the liberal arts through funding of unique and inspirational educational experiences. I used the grant to spend 10 days in the Holy Land this summer with my family. I can testify unequivocally and whole-heartedly that it was an unquestionably unique and deeply inspirational educational experience for all of us.

Near the end of our trip we visited Mount Tabor the place of Jesus’ transfiguration. “Jesus took Peter, James, and his brother John, and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them.” (Mk 9:2) Two days later we were back home attending Mass on the Feast of the Transfiguration. Wow! What an experience. Listening to that gospel with the dust of Mount Tabor still on my sandals gave me the chills and a new perspective on, new dimension to, and new experience of my faith.

In the past I have had a mental image of the Transfiguration influenced by artistic representations. Today I can recall the landscape, trees, sky, view from the mountain, and the breeze from my visit to Mount Tabor. I can easily imagine the arduous climb to the top.

To help you understand my experience in the Holy Land here is an analogy. My mom grew up in Detroit. When I was about 20 she took me to the house where she grew up, to her schools, to her parish church, to the pond she ice skated on and to the store where she had her first job. I had heard about these places for years but seeing them in person added a deeper dimension to my understanding of my mom’s childhood. Visiting the Holy Land has done something similar for my relationship with Jesus. I walked in the footsteps of Jesus.

A particularly memorable site to visit was Capernaum on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Mentioned at least 16 times in the New Testament, it is the place Jesus lived during the three years of his public ministry. It is where He called the fishermen, Peter, Andrew, James and John and the tax collector, Matthew. Today there are two churches and some ruins there. At the time of Jesus it was a village of about 1000. (About the size of Prep) Everyone must have known everyone. The coastline was no more than a few hundred yards long. (From the Prep baseball field to the football field) The buildings in the village took up much less space than the buildings on the Prep campus. Most of the coastline is unchanged from the time of Jesus. I walked that coastline; exactly where Jesus walked and called the disciples. I put my feet in the water, likely where Jesus had once put his feet. I gazed upon the Sea and the distant opposite shore; the exact same view Jesus had every day for three years. Excavations have revealed a synagogue in Capernaum from the time of Jesus. The ceiling and much of the walls are gone but the floor with its mosaic remains. Jesus worshiped and taught in that synagogue. I stood just outside the rope barrier at that synagogue.

In Jerusalem, I walked around the Temple Mount. It was the very same temple area Jesus, being a Jew, often visited throughout his life. The very same temple area where he overturned the tables of the money changers. I stood in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus prayed the night he was arrested.

Probably the most moving places I visited was the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. It stands above the rock of Calvary and the tomb where Jesus was buried and from which he rose. I spent an afternoon there praying for you. Yes, for you. I sat in the church calling to mind all the people in my life and asking God’s blessings upon them. I specifically asked God’s blessing on the entire Prep community (past, present and future) and on many, many others. If you are reading this, you were prayed for.

There is much more I gained from the trip culturally, historically, politically. I have a much better understanding of the intractable and complicated conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. We found ourselves in the middle of a highly charged demonstration between Jews and Muslims one day on the Temple Mount. Soldiers with automatic weapons quickly moved in to keep the peace. We visited the unspeakably tragic and moving holocaust museum in Jerusalem.

One of our highlights was being invited to the Jesuit Pontifical Biblical Institute in Jerusalem to celebrate mass on July 31, the feast of St. Ignatius. There were about 150 of us there. The total Roman Catholic population of Jerusalem is fairly minuscule, about 1/3 of 1%.

I have tried but words truly cannot describe what this trip mean to me and my family. It is an incomparable blessing for which we will always be grateful.