WHAT IS A PILGRIMAGE?

        A pilgrimage is a journey undertaken for a religious reason. Since the time of Jesus Christians have visited the places associated with his birth, life and death. In addition to these sites in Israel there are many other centres of Christian pilgrimage Lourdes in France, Walsingham, and Canterbury in England, Holywell and Saint Davids in Wales, Rome, to name but a few.

        The Roman Catholic Church has always taught that pilgrimage is a useful way to strengthen one’s Christian faith. The Protestant Churches generally rejected the idea of pilgrimage because they believe that if it gives people the wrong idea about God. Pilgrimage was always popular in the Middle Ages, and is increasingly in popularity again, perhaps because Christians are searching for a Christian identifying in the hurly-burly of the twentieth century life.

WHY I WENT ON A PILGRIMAGE

        I have three reasons why I went on a pilgrimage. They are:

  • To visit the sites of Jesus’ birth, life and death in order to experience the atmosphere and gain a deeper understanding of his teaching.
  • To walk in his footsteps of a saint who was very special to us (Christians), especially if a miracle is connected to the site of the pilgrimage.
  • To thank God for a blessing he has given them.
  • To be with fellow Christians from all round the globe. Christianity

   

THE HOLY LAND AND WHAT I DID

        I began my pilgrimage in the place of Jesus’ birthplace, BETHLEHEM.

The story of Bethlehem

        Bethlehem is a small town, which lies about five miles south of Jerusalem in the land of Israel. It attracts many thousands of Christian pilgrims every year and is especially popular as a place of pilgrimage a Christmas, for here in this little town Jesus was born.

        Mary and Joseph, the parents of Jesus lived in the town of Nazareth, about 100 miles to the north in the district of Galilee.  Shortly before Mary's first child was due to be born, the Romans who occupied the land announced that there was to be a census (i.e. a registration of the whole population); and people had to travel to the chief town of their own particular tribe to register.  As Joseph was a native of Bethlehem, this meant that Mary and he had to travel there.  Bethlehem was extremely busy because of the census and the couple had great difficulty in finding anywhere to stay.  Joseph was very worried since he knew that Mary's baby would soon be born.  At last they were offered a corner in a stable and their Mary gave birth to a son.  Many houses in Bethlehem were built in front of caves and it may well have been that the birthplace was a cave behind the living area of the inn, where the animals were put for shelter in bad weather.

        It soon became clear that this boy was no ordinary child.  In the fields outside the town, a group of shepherds were keeping watch over their flocks when suddenly, they had a vision of an angel who told them, 'Do not be afraid!  I bring you good news of great joy, for to you is born today in Bethlehem, a Saviour, the Messiah, and the Lord!  You will find him lying in a manger. 'The shepherds, after they recovered from the fear and surprise at this vision, set off for the town to visit the child.  They told Mary of the vision and they bowed down before this newborn baby.

        Meanwhile, in another place, wise men that studied the stars had seen a new star appear in the sky and were convinced that it marked the birth of someone very special.  They set out to follow the star and it led them eventually to the palace of King Herod the Great in Jerusalem.  Herod was very worried at what the wise men told him, for when they talked of a new king being born, he thought his own position as king was going to be threatened.  He did not, however, share his fear with the wise men but told them to go and find the child and then report back to him so that he could worship this special child as well.  The wise men did find the child, and the story in the Christian New Testament says that they presented the child with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.  They did not go back to Herod, however, for they had a dream in which they were warned that he wanted to kill the child.  Joseph also had a dream and, as a result, took Mary and the baby to Egypt, where they lived for about two years, before returning to Nazareth, where Jesus was to grow up and spend most of his life.

Herod was furious and, in a fit of mad rage, ordered the killing of every male child born in or around Bethlehem about the time of the wise men's visit.  Some of the stories about the birth of Jesus may be legends, which developed, in later years.  It may be difficult to separate the legends from the true facts, but one thing is certain - it was in this little town of Bethlehem that Jesus was born and from this birth, so too was born the faith of Christianity.

                What I did at Bethlehem

        The most important thing for us to do was to visit the Church of nativity. A church was first built on the site in the early part of the sixth century CE. It was rebuilt in the sixth century and the church that we visited is basically the rebuilt sixth century one.

        The Place

         I was very excited as the coach climbed the hill into the town Centre, I could already see the bell tower of the Church of the Nativity and immediately recalled hearing the sound of these bells on radio and television at Christmas time.

Join now!

        I saw a sign saying Manger Square as the coach parked inside it. The group and I made your way over to the Church entrance. The entrance to the church was very small indeed. It looked as though in the past the edges had been filled in to make it smaller.

        As me and the group entered we were told that the part to the right of the high altar belonged to the Greek Orthodox Church and the part to the left belonged to the Armenian Church.  Joined onto the building is a church belonging to Franciscan monks; it is ...

This is a preview of the whole essay