A pilgrimage

AT THE Wailing Wall, I wept.

Amid a babel of what can be supplications, lamentations, laudations, and benedictions, above the celebratory din of bar mitzvahs all around, I found innermost peace.  Soon as my palms touched the wall, radiated throughout my body that sense of the sacred, finding physical manifest in… goosebumps. And as I kissed the wall, a torrent of tears –   

All praise and glory to You, my Lord.

What am I to merit Your grace?

A serial sinner, enslaved with the world,

mired in wickedness, chained to iniquity.

Bowed down now before Your Temple

Awash in Your mercy and compassion

I beg Your forgiveness.

Help me keep steadfast to the Way.

Hear my prayers.

All praise and glory to You, my God.
AT BETHLEHEM, my heart leapt for joy.  
Prostrated to kiss the silver star marking the spot where Mary gave birth to the Saviour - 

Gloria in excelsis Deo,

Et in terra pax hominibus…

Sorrow, suddenly dawning –  

The peace of Thy birthing,

The peace of Thy preaching,

That peace Thou bequeathed to the apostles – and to the world,

Utterly rejected, in a conflicted world by our own undoing.

Why, the very place of Thy birth

A walled-in prison, a barbed-wired garrison!

Renew in us Thy Faith, where springs Hope,

whence Love grows, and reigns Thy peace.

Make us again worthy to be called children of God.

O, JERUSALEM!

How I rejoice at the mere sight of thee!

Thou fill my longings with joy, thy love overflows.

Thou sear my soul, my spirit soars.

Blessed am I, even as I stand outside thy walls.  

AT GETHSEMANE –

“Can you not stay awake with Me for one hour?

…pray that you will not enter into temptation. For the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”

Too often have we succumbed – without so much a fight – to the call of the flesh. Aye, so have we made the weakness of our flesh as the very (ir)rationalization for our sinning: As we are but human, so shall we sin.

Lord, help us stay awake with You, let Your spirit strengthen our will, fortify our resolve to fight the snares of evil, not only for us not to sin but moreso, for us not to cause others to sin. 

AT VIA DOLOROSA – 

I fall, in sin. Thou fell to save me from my sin. Once, twice, thrice, it matters not. Endless is Thy mercy and compassion.

I can only seek Thy forgiveness.

Grant me the grace not so much as the Cyrenian ordered to help Thou carry the cross, but to take up my own cross – as atonement for sin, in testimony of faith, as a beacon of hope, and expression of love -- as I strive to keep to Thy Way all the days of my life.  

AT THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE –

Up a steep staircase, opens the Altar of Calvary where enshrined the rock on which the Holy Cross was raised. Kissing the rock in penitential prostration, the eyes swelled with tears.  

All too real now – the hammer strikes the nails that pierced Thy palms and feet. The crown of thorns sinking deeper into Thy head every minute. Thy wounds from the scourging at the pillar oozing with blood. Amid Thy suffering, the blasphemies of the mocking crowd…Consummatum est.

Father, forgive us even when we know the wrongness of what we are doing.

Lord Jesus crucified, have mercy on us.

Down the stairs, by the main entry to the church, a red granite slab – the Stone of Anointing – where the body of the Lord, taken from the cross, was washed and prepared for burial.

With a heart most contrite, I rest my head upon this rock. Lord, may I be cleansed from my sinful ways.

AT THE AEDICULE –

Long lines to the shrine housing the empty tomb where the Lord was laid and resurrected. Cacophonous murmurings, soft chanting, whispered prayers – in myriad tongues – intrude into contemplative meditation as one prepares the mind, the heart, the soul to enter the holy of holies.

Inside – Dear Lord, I have come to lay before Thy tomb my sins and weaknesses, my doubts and anxieties, all that burden my soul.

I have brought too the needs of family, friends, and benefactors.

May all our prayers – by Thy passion and cross – be lifted with the glory of Thy resurrection. Amen.

AT THE CHAPEL OF THE RESURRECTION –

In the culminating Mass officiated by our pilgrimage chaplain, the Rev. Fr. Bong Villarica of St. Augustine Major Seminary, Tagaytay City – 

Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.

As it all happened here, so have I been blessed to experience the deepest meaning of the memorial acclamation, the reality and promise of the mystery of our Faith.

Benedicamus Domino. Deo gratias.