Hi, I'm Edward Sree, and welcome to all things Catholic Catholic where real faith meets real life.

Imagine waking up on the shores of the Sea of Galilee and looking out your window and you see

the sea where Jesus walked on water, where Jesus calmed the storm, where Jesus called

Peter and Andrew and did his public ministry and

and then you step outside and you take in the fresh air coming across the sea and

you pinch yourself and you say am I really really here? Am I really here in the Holy

Land? I'm in the place where Jesus lived. You know that's how many pilgrims

feel on their first morning on a Holy Land pilgrimage and this very week I'm in Israel and I'm leading a trip

of many pilgrims from throughout the United States and Canada and I just wanted to give you a little

taste of what pilgrimage is like in the Holy Land here but

first let me just say a few words about pilgrimage itself.

You see pilgrimage is very different than going to a place as a tourist or traveling on vacation somewhere.

You know, when you're just on vacation, you relax, you have fun, you see many sites,

you eat great food, drink good wine, and certainly on a pilgrimage.

We may do those things too, there's wonderful Mediterranean food in Israel and good wine and

lots of times for relaxation as well.

But we have to keep in mind a pilgrimage is a little different.

Pilgrimage is a sacred journey.

And what do I mean by that?

You know, I live here in Denver, Colorado and I'm very blessed as all the Colorado ones are at the beautiful landscape and these amazing mountains we have here.

And it's so fun to take friends and family up into the mountains and going for a hike and I love taking especially my kids up to climb the 14ers those 14,000 foot mountains here in Colorado and as you're going up these mountains, if you've ever done this

before, you have all these switchbacks, you're going back and forth, back and forth, and then

...