1: Unique journeys to God
When 45 people meet at Johannesburg airport to embark on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and Italy (with travel-imposed stop-overs in Cairo), they are certain to...
September 2006
2: Graces in Galilee
The area around the Sea of Galilee (or Sea of Gennesaret, as the evangelist Luke called it) is my favourite part in a Holy Land itinerary. Here,...
3: Where rank will not impress
The road to the magnificent Barluzzi-designed church atop Mount Tabor the site of the transfiguration snakes and winds by way of a succession hairpin bends. Tour buses...
4: Inside a walled ghetto
Bethlehem means the house of bread, and here, the Gospel tells us, the Bread of Life was born. And here, daily bread is denied to many as...
5: Mount of Olives
The Mount of Olives is my favourite part of Jerusalem. This was where Jesus would make his home when visiting the Holy City, where he was arrested,...
6: Waiting for ladder to fall
Occasionally I am asked about my favourite place in the Holy Land. It is a difficult question to answer. For me, there are three: the entire area...
7: A vision that changed history
Our time in the Holy Land was slowly winding down. For a week we followed in the footsteps of Jesus, as the indispensable cliche goes and, indeed,...
8: Rome’s loveliest basilica
When St Peter left the lands of his birth for the city of his death, he departed by boat from Jaffa, which today is a suburb of...
9: St Peter’s basilica at its best and worst
As one prepares to visit Rome for the first time, one may expect that the highpoint would be St Peter’s basilica, an architectural marvel packed with priceless...
10: The pope, in the flesh
At breakfast on Wednesday morning in Rome, our group of 45 pilgrims seemed a little more animated than usual. This was the day we were going to...
