Holy Land Pilgrimage 3

This is the view of the Sea of Galilee from the Mount of Beatitudes Guest House.

On this nice Sunday morning a few of us hiked the 1 1/2 miles down the mountain to Capernaum for Mass.  The rest took the bus.

There are just a couple of buildings here with the ruins.

St Peter

 Above are the ruins under the church that are believed to be what is left of Peter's house.  Below is the interior of the Church.  In the center the floor is glass so you can see right down into those ruins.

Each pillar of the church had a beautiful carving.  This one is "Thou art Peter."

Jesus is denied by Peter.

Jesus ate with the sinners at Matthews house.

This is under the church

Ruins of Capernaum

This old synagogue was built in the 1st Century but is thought to be like what Jesus would have experienced.

A view of the church from the side.

 After leaving Capernaum we headed over the area of what is left of Caesarea Philipi where Jesus asked "Who do you say that I am?"  It is a National Park and has a waterfalls in a gorge that is formed from the springs that come from the northern mountains in Israel like Mt. Hermon.  There is a nice hiking trail along the stream to see the falls.

It is nice that they identify some of the trees that you hear about in the Scriptures

Right in the center is Mt. Hermon

It is amazing that I can't keep plants alive and this is growing in a rock.

Raspberries.

At the end of our hike we came to the place Jesus popped the question.  It is a large rock formation that was being used as a pagan temple.  Jesus was contrasting Peter the rock with this dead rock.

Some of what is here was built on the old temple after Jesus' time.

Then we headed to a Kibbutz for lunch.

The name of this sculpture was "Pillar of Salt."

I think these were pomegranates.

Can you guess what these nine things are?  Answer at the end.

Then we went to the church of Peter's Primacy where Jesus asked him, "Do you love me?"

Several popes have visited here.

Heart shaped stone for "Do you love me?"

Then "Feed my sheep."

I prayed about the questions at this point for myself.  Then I asked what Jesus wanted me to do?  At that point a plastic grocery bag came blowing in front of me and I knew my answer, "Clean my beach" or "Pick up the trash and walk."  So I cleaned the beach.
The answer is that they are cotton stacks out in the cotton field.
Then it was back to the Mount of Beatitudes Guest House for the night.