Retreat-Holidays
Programme: Walking on water
Retreat leader:
Dr Stephanie Rybak
Director of Retreat-Holidays
We may feel dried up, dead, unable to cope in our own strength...
In our weakness, we find that Jesus is calling us to walk on water - and, crucially, enabling us to do so, if only we keep our eyes fixed on him.
Each day, we shall focus on a different gospel story, all of them events which took place very close to where we shall be staying. Several of the locations are within walking distance:
Because the pilgrimage sites are, not surprisingly, full of pilgrims, we shall be combining visits to the major sites with times of quiet at less well-known spots which lend themselves to peaceful reflection. Our provisional programme looks like this:
Day 1 - Tuesday - Travel
Tabgha is about 2 hours and 30 minutes from Tel Aviv airport. We shall be stopping for a meal on the way.
Day 2 - Wednesday - Tabgha
A path through orchards and olive groves leads from the Pilgerhaus to the church built to commemorate the feeding of the five thousand. The Church of the Multiplication of Loaves and Fishes houses this lovely mosaic, which dates from about 500AD.
Along a short path from the church is the simple, evocative lakeside altar of Dalmanutha, where we hope to hold a Eucharist in the course of the week.
Day 3 - Thursday - Capernaum
Capernaum was the home of Peter, Andrew, James, John, Matthew and, at least for a time, of Jesus himself. He moved there to begin his public ministry when he was driven out of Nazareth. The remains of a 5th-century Byzantine basilica stand on the site that is traditionally known as St Peter's house, where archeologists have found strata going back to at least the 1st century AD.
It was in Capernaum too that Jesus cast out an unclean devil, healed a fever in Simon Peter's mother-in-law and also healed the centurion's servant.
The ruined synagogue which we shall visit dates back to about the 4th century AD, but foundations of an earlier building have been discovered beneath it and that is thought to be the synagogue in which Jesus taught on the sabbath.
From the synagogue in Capernaum, we shall go to the ruins of another 4th century synagogue, this time at Arbel, nearby but in the hills. It offers a magnificent view, but it is off the tourist trail, so we hope to have it to ourselves for some quiet time.
Day 4 - Friday - Mount Tabor
Mount Tabor is the traditional site of the Transfiguration. It was the moment when Peter, James and John were made dazzlingly aware of who Jesus really was. Immersing ourselves in the story also gives us an invitation to allow ourselves to be transformed into who we really are in Christ.
The area of the site from which one can see the view is small and we shall be sharing it with other groups. We therefore intend to have a silent, prayerful lunch on the veranda of the convent, which looks out over the panorama.
Day 5 - Saturday - The Mount of Beatitudes
The Sermon on the Mount should really be called the Sermon on the Hill, because the Mount of Beatitudes is only about 100 metres high! It is within walking distance of the Pilgerhaus, but we shall be arranging transport.
The Sermon on the Mount is far more radical than we usually recognise and the day of our visit will be an opportunity to spend time exploring the ways in which it challenges each of us.
When we have visited the site, those of us who feel able to manage a 400-yard walk downhill (and back up again) will go for some quiet time to a spot which offers this magnificent view of the lake. The track runs alongside the depression in the hillside which may well have been the natural theatre in which Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount (though there is ambiguity in the gospels and disagreement among scholars about whether the sermon was given to a crowd or just to the disciples). Those who don't want the walk can stay on the site and have some prayer-time there.
Day 6 - Sunday - Peter's Primacy:
Breakfast on the beach
The Church of Peter's Primacy is built on the shore at the spot which tradition holds is where Jesus cooked breakfast for his disciples after he had risen from the dead. We'll each take time to reflect on our own response to the question Jesus put to Peter: "Do you love me?"
Peter's Primacy is within walking distance of the Pilgerhaus, so, for our linked reflection time, we can either stay on the shore by the church or go back to the gardens of the Pilgerhaus and look out at the lake from there.
There will be a Sunday Eucharist.
For those who wish, we hope to arrange a trip to the Ron Beach Hotel in Tiberias for a bar lunch and a swim in the hotel pool.
Day 7 - Monday - Ginosar: Galilee boat and boat trip
The ancient Galilee boat is 2000 years old, excavated from the mud beside the lake. Could it possibly have been one which Jesus touched, travelled in, taught from...? We'll be visiting it at the Yigal Alon Museum in Ginosar.
To help us imagine ourselves on such a boat with Jesus, we hope to be taking a boat trip out onto the lake, though this will depend on availability and - as you will realise from the gospel stories - on weather conditions.
Day 8 Travel - Caesarea Maritima
On our way back to Tel Aviv airport for an evening flight, we shall be visiting Caesarea Maritima, which was built by Herod the Great. The Roman Procurator established his residence there and it became the capital of the Roman province of Judaea, though it was predominantly Hellenistic.
Caesarea is not mentioned in the Gospels, but is a significant location for both Peter and Paul in the Acts of the Apostles.
The programme is provisional: arrangements are subject to change.
The Sea of Galilee