Welcome to our daily rosary meditation. These meditations were recorded just this past June in the Holy Land.

And one of my favorite things in the world is to lead people to a deep encounter with Jesus and Mary in Bethlehem,

at the home of the Holy Family in Nazareth, on the Sea of Galilee, in the

Garden of Gisemone, and in the empty tomb of Jesus in Jerusalem.

And I want to invite you to this same encounter this December,

2003, for the best Christmas preparation ever.

Just go to schoolof faith.com,

click on pilgrimages, and you can get all the information.

So let's begin in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

And let's call to mind all those we've promised to pray for.

We are on the top of the Mount of Beatitudes overlooking the Sea of Galilee.

Right below us to the right is where Jesus multiplied

the loaves and fishes and fed the 5,000. And immediately after feeding them, he told the

apostles to get in the boat and go to the other side while he went up on this hill, maybe right here where we're sitting, where he could watch the apostles rowing the boat across the lake. He was watching them all night long, but he was always able to see them.

But they couldn't see him.

And they thought they were on their own.

It gets difficult when it feels like God is absent.

Now we know that God sees everything,

like he could see them rowing the boat across the sea.

We know God's always watching,

but sometimes it just feels like he isn't.

...