Bishop Nelson Perez and 50 pilgrims from the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland began a 10-day journey to the Holy Land on Oct. 23. The Catholic Community Foundation coordinated the trip and Deacon Dennis Conrad from St. Christopher Parish in Rocky River will be sending regular updates to share their experiences throughout the pilgrimage. His first installment is below.
After leaving Cleveland the evening of Oct. 23, our first stop was Newark, New Jersey. In Newark, the group learned the first lesson of every pilgrim: we live by God’s time rather than our own. The airplane that was to take us to Tel Aviv, Israel, had a mechanical issue. As a result, we spent the night in Newark and left early on Oct. 24 for Tel Aviv.
We hope that the Church of Cleveland will join us on this pilgrimage by following this blog. You can count on our prayers and we hope that you will include us in your prayers as the students at St. Christopher School in Rocky River did in their school Mass this week.