Fr. Joe's Pilgrimage to the Holy Land

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Fr. Joe Welschmeyer speaking with pilgrims on the pebble coastline, Sea of Galilee, Israel, at the Church of the Primacy of St. Peter. (November 7, 2008)

Fr. Joe Welschmeyer speaking with pilgrims on the pebble coastline, Sea of Galilee, Israel, at the Church of the Primacy of St. Peter.
(November 7, 2008)

Missouri pilgrims wearing hello distinctive hats to keep the 40 together in crowds of thousands in various tour groups from ALL continents of the world.

Fr. Joe Welshcmeyer spaking to a Franciscan tour guide at the home of St. Peter in the village excavations of "Capernaum", on the Sea of Galiee.

Fr. Joe Welschmeyer, at the sheep fountain, in the square of "Shepherd's Field" about one mile from the Church of the Nativity(Birth) of Christ in Bethlehelm, Israel. (November 9, 2008).

Mass in the Church of the Arrest of Jesus on the Mout of Olives, facing the ancient city of Jerusalem.

Ancient Byzantine Greek Church of the Ascension of Jesus, now controlled by the Moslem people on the Mount of Olives, Jerusalem. (2008).

Our tour guide, Sammy Tawil, an Syrian Orthodox Christian from Jersusalem. He was with us the entire pilgrimage.

In the dungeon prison of the high priest Caiaphas under the Church of St Peter (The Rooster Crow). Here Jesus Chrsit was kept overnight before his cruxifixion on Mt. Calvary (Golgotha), Jerusalem.

Praying the Stations of the Cross on the "Via Dolorosa" (Latin for the way of sorrows) which led to Golgotha (Calvary). Here the streets wind thru the Moslem section of Jerusalem to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. It was at Golgotha (crucifixion) and the tomb (sepulcher) of Jesus Christ is located under the dome of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, built by Emperor Constantine in 326 A.D.

Approaching the Church of the Holy Sepulcher with the stations of the cross. Note the wooden cross carried by the pilgrims. The devotion of the Stations of the Cross were begun by the Franciscan Order (ofm) in the 1200's, for the poor who could not afford to travel from Europe to the Holy Land. The Greek Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Rite Catholics do not use this religious devotion of the Latin Church.

In ancient Jerusalem, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, (built 326 A.D.) under this Church is both the site of the crucifixion (Golgotha) and the tomb of Christ (the sepulcher). In the 1890's the Anglican Church began taking Protestant Christians to an alternative "garden tomb" away from this site. Because the various Protestant Christian Churches did not exist at the time when the Moslem Empire agreed to allow the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox Churches access to the holy sites associated with Jesus Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection .