Election Day in the Holy Land

Today is Election Day, and I am in the Holy Land. Many of you may know that our AMS Holy Land Pilgrimage is Nov. 2-12 this month. I purposely wanted to do this trip during the Presidential Election. It's kind of surreal to have such a high-profile event taking place at the same time we are walking the footsteps of Jesus Christ. I really feel like we are doing our part in prayer and sacrifice to help with the outcome of this election. It is 7 hours ahead here, so I plan to get up at 2:00 a.m. to turn on Fox News and watch the coverage :-)

For me, it was so difficult to really "get into" this trip up until now with work and family preparations for my being away for 12 days. I just did not want to leave Bridget and the kids for that long. This will be the longest I have ever been away from them at one time. They have all been very supportive about my going, and know that my going is a blessing to me, for our family, and for the group attending the trip. But it is still hard for everyone, including myself, to physically leave them. After getting to JFK and meeting up with the group, I was finally starting to realize what was happening and how wonderful it is going to be. The group was so excited. As usual, we have a great group! There are 36 of us, and many are alumni AMS travelers. We have a person from Australia and a person from Ireland with us, too.

We had long travels without any real problems. Elsa lost her passport in Madrid when we were about to board, but thank God (and St. Anthony, whom many of us were praying to, and Julie from Australia who really came to Elsa's aid) that it was found by a person at the Duty Free shop Elsa left it at and sent ahead to the gate. But all is well and we are here in Tel Aviv.

Getting through customs went really smoothly and the group was great about staying together. We met up with the tour company with no problem and got on the bus to head to our hotel.

The first thing you realize when you arrive here is how safe it is. There is absolutely no sign of danger at all. So all the concerns for safety went out the window. We got to the hotel, got settled in our rooms, Fr. Castor had Mass for us, we then had dinner and went straight to bed. We were all exhausted. I conked out on the bed at 9:30. As I said, it's 7 hours difference from the US, so it was only 2:30 Monday afternoon back home. I guess it will be a couple of days until my body gets adjusted to the time change. I'm writing at 3:00 a.m. because I am awake and can't get back to sleep. So I figured I would just get up and do some work.

We are looking forward to starting our touring today (Tuesday). It is election day in the US and Fr. Castor is offering Mass for the election and we will follow it tonight on TV after our day of touring. We will be praying a lot while here for this election, as well as for many things this entire time we are here. I am praying and fasting while here for graces that will affect my family, all those I said I would pray for and who are expecting my prayers, for the intentions of single Catholics and their vocation to marriage, and in reparation for my own sins. And the 9 tour days we have is going to be my 9-day novena for the Holy Souls in Purgatory.

So it is going to be an amazing and beautiful trip. I'm looking forward to it and can't wait to see how the Holy Spirit works for those of us on this pilgrimage. Hopefully, I can post more while I'm here. If not, I will do a summary when I get back. Please pray for me and our AMS group on pilgrimage.