After leaving Ashdod at night, we arrived at Haifa the next morning. Our tour guide from Jerusalem was already there to greet us and ready to take us to Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee.
Nazareth was the place where Jesus’ parents, Joseph and Mary, resided and where Jesus spent his childhood and youth. Right after being born in Bethlehem, Jesus was taken to Egypt for a few years before the family came back to Nazareth. Jesus stayed there until he started his ministry.
Our first stop is the Church of Annunciation, the site of Joseph and Mary’s home. It is also the site where the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would conceive by the power of the Holy Spirit.
On the street leading to the church, we saw many more people in Arabic garbs than in Jerusalem.
This is the main entrance to the Church of Annunciation. The current church was built in the 1960s. The earliest church on this site was built in the 4th-century.
There is a gallery with mosaics representing some of the most important Marian devotions in different countries. This one depicts a Chinese Virgin Mary.
The church is a two-story building with a big skylight. It is spacious and beautiful.
The lower level of the church. On the left behind an iron fence is the Grotto of the Annunciation.
The cave behind the altar is where Mary lived in her youth and where the Annunciation took place.
Next stop was The Church of the Beatitudes. The church sits on a small hill where Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount. Eight Beatitudes - eight blessings included in the Sermon, are displayed in mosaics along the walkway leading to the church. (Our mentor of the biblical knowledge, Elaine, was on the left.)
Eight stained glass windows below the golden dome of the octagonal structure also display the eight Beatitudes.
We then went to Tabgha to visit The Church of the Multiplication. This is where Jesus fed five thousand followers with five loaves and two fishes.
The current church was built in 1982. The earliest church known to be on this site was built in 4th-century. We saw some charred fences and walls, caused by arson fire instigated by Jewish extremists. The terrorist act occurred in this past summer so the burnt damages looked very new.
Capernaum, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, was where Jesus began his ministry after leaving his boyhood home at Nazareth. A church now sits on top of the house of Jesus’ first disciple - Saint Peter. The church has glass floor where the ruin of Peter’s house can be seen underneath.
Next to the church is the ruin of residential dwellings.
Next to the dwellings is the ruin of a 4th-century synagogue. Jesus taught here on Sabbath.
Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. Being baptized in the same water is a holy experience for many faithful.
After visiting St Peter’s old house near the shore of the Sea of Galilee, our tour guide told us about a special seafood called St Peter’s Fish at a nearby restaurant. It sounded like a special cuisine of a holy fish so the group had our lunch at this restaurant. We found out St Peter’s Fish is just a plain tilapia caught in the Sea of Galilee.
The fish is called St Peter’s Fish because the restaurant is called St Peter’s Restaurant. What a rip-off! But it does have a beautiful view of the sea.
We came back to Haifa to visit the Bahá'í World Centre, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We arrived at the gate to this magnificent garden two minutes before the closing time. The guards allowed us exactly two minutes of picture-taking time.
The group picture from Ashley and Andrea of Ireland.
Two minutes up, the guards politely asked us to leave and we continued with picture taking outside the gate. (Our group leader Peter was on the right.)
After seeing all the holy sites in the last two days, my sense of holiness wasn’t whole until ---- on a fashionable street lined with eateries in Haifa, I saw the name of my own holy city – Taipei.
-Joe
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