As I am writing this eBulletin I am in Istanbul, Turkey with a group of 48 pilgrims from St. Simon and Holy Spirit Parishes and we are halfway through our pilgrimage of Walking in the Footsteps of St. Paul. It has been a lot of traveling each day and the pace has been a little more than we expected. We certainly appreciate how much Paul traveled and how he would have completed his travels on foot, riding a horse, or in a ship between the islands. Admittedly he accomplished all of this over a few years and not a few weeks. But it is still impressive the number of places that St. Paul covered in his years preaching and teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
There were some especially powerful sites that we visited, and I include some photos to give you all a sense of the times and places we visited. We started out by celebrating Mass at the ancient ruins of Corinth and that was a wonderful way to start our travels. We also saw the massive canal that was developed here. An impressive feat of human engineering, a smaller version of the Suez Canal and equally as important for this geographic economic development. Of course, we visited the world-renowned Acropolis and marveled at the ancient Pantheon, built some 2,400 years ago. It would have been at Mars Hill that he addressed the people of this city pleading his case for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
From Athens we hopped from Island-to-Island tracing St. Paul’s journeys that he took over many years teaching and preaching to the Gentiles at that time as he felt compelled to preach to the non-Jews. Visiting the ancient city of Ephesus was amazing as the city was huge and very sophisticated with a large amphitheater, library, government buildings and market square for trade and commerce. This city was built on a hill and would have been the city of commerce in those ancient times. Paul wrote to the Ephesians and was passionate about his preaching to these people. We felt as if we were back in his time.
Then we visited the House of Mary in Patmos where it is believed that St. John took care of Mary, the Mother of Jesus as he was commanded to do so from the cross as Jesus was dying. This was definitely one of the highlights as the shrine to Our Lady was beautiful and holy—a true place of prayer for all of us. We then visited the monastery dedicated to St. John and his lifetime of preaching and teaching the command to “love one another” and where he received the vision that led to the writing of the Book of Revelation.
From there we again travelled the islands of Rhodes, Crete, and Santorini where we visited ancient ruins of many cities that now overlook the Bay of St. Paul. One of the highlights here was the home of the great Minoan Civilization, which existed here around1,700 BC. Wow! It was a marvelous discovery and very impressive. They had running water, sewage and a sophisticated society inside this city. It was understood to be more than likely a women-led society, and everything seemed so ordered and peaceful. What was most notable was the absence of warrior images and weapons of war! It was a powerful site to visit and makes us wonder how far we have “advanced as a society.” I preached that day at Mass about the gift that women offer to us in leadership and how the Church and our society needs those softer skills now. We talked about how we have much we have to learn from this ancient culture of Minoans and how we should be less interested in developing weapons of war and instead work for peace and justice in our modern society.
Overall, it has been a powerful first half of the pilgrimage and we now continue in St. Paul’s footsteps here Istanbul, the ancient city and capital of Christianity, once known as Constantinople and we travel further into this fascinating country and culture. Last night we celebrated Mass at the beautiful Church of Santa Maria Draperis, a beautiful small Church tucked away down the steps from a main street of Istanbul. We prayed for you all, as we do all each day as we travel from site to site. Please pray for us and keep us safe.
God bless,
Fr. Brendan
