Jesus is real and you can walk where he walked and a trip to the Holy Land gives you a chance to experience

the Bible in a way that can't be replaced by just reading through the pages. Welcome to the Catholic podcast. I'm your host for today's episode, Chloe Langer.

I'm joined here today by the founder of Holy Family School Faith Institute, Dr Michael.

Shlerschik. Welcome to the show, Mike.

Thanks for coming on this afternoon.

It's a joy.

I always love talking about two things, the Holy Land and our Lady.

And we get to talk about both of them today.

Very much so. We're going to be answering the question why you

listeners should go to the Holy Land, but before we talk about why we should go to

the Holy Land, Mike, you've been to the Holy Land many times,

but can you tap back into your experience

the first time that you went to the Holy Land?

What was that experience like for you?

And how did that trip build your friendship

and relationship with Christ and Mama Mary

and those who we read about in scriptures?

Yeah, it's very beautiful, and the listeners can't see

but I'm smiling because I have such a love for the Holy Land,

but it didn't start out so. In fact, I didn't see any need to go to the Holy Land.

I took a youth group to Rome in 1995 and we have this idea that Rome, while it is the

headquarters of Jesus today, we have this idea that it was the birthplace of Christianity, but it's not.

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