Tears flowed at the Church of the Nativity, Basilica of Agony for Holy Land pilgrims

Pictured: Father Adrian Porras elevates the Eucharist during Mass at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem March 8. He and a group of pilgrims from the Diocese of Charlotte are on a week-long pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Join the virtual pilgrimage with us at http://lentholyland.tumblr.com.

"And so she brought forth her firstborn Son. And she wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn."

Kneeling before the place where Christ was born, standing where the Gospel of Luke describes His birth, brought tears to the eyes of the pilgrims from the Diocese of Charlotte visiting the Holy Land this week.

"It was like a dream come true," said Barbara Kolesar, a parishioner at Holy Family Church in Clemmons. "We saw the manger where Mary and Joseph lay Jesus, and it was just overwhelming."

Fellow parishioner at Holy Family, Anne Rega, added, "You just cannot believe the chills up your spine as you're going through all of these services and visiting all of these sites. It's a onc- in-a-lifetime experience."

In his homily at Mass at the Chapel of St. Helena at the Church of the Nativity, Father Adrian Porras of St. Barnabas Church in Arden talked about how the birth of Jesus allowed God to communicate with mankind without invoking fear.

"It's interesting in the Gospel when the angels appear – they always say there was fear among those who see the angels," Father Porras said during his homily. "The holiness, the glory. The Scripture tells us that it is something that makes the human body shake because we're not used to that type of vision.

"Christ was another way. He was a way God descended upon us, so we can look upon Jesus and not have that fear. He could speak to us in a way in which we can listen. And follow and grow and not always tremble, in a sense."

Shaking herself, Beanie DeJean, former Winston-Salem resident, said she felt so special to participate during Mass at the Church of the Nativity.

"The first time I was a Eucharistic minister, when I returned to my seat, I was shaking. I felt so full of the Lord. And at that moment, I prayed to never lose that feeling.

"And I haven't. I felt it so strongly today."

Her husband Milt agreed that it was a special experience, but deferred questions about expressions of feeling to his wife.

Letha Hinman, parishioner at St. Barnabas in Arden, who read the first reading at Mass about the birth of Jesus, said she was so happy that she kept it together during the reading. Recalling the experience brought her to tears.

Later in the day, the pilgrims visited the Mount of Olives, where the Garden of Gethsemane sits next to the Basilica of Agony, the place Jesus prayed His last prayer before He was betrayed and arrested.

St. Barnabas parishioner Mary Alice Girardi said praying in the Basilica of Agony is something she will remember each Holy Thursday and Good Friday.

"It was so powerful to pray at such a beautiful church, but in my mind I kept hearing the laments and the sorrows that you hear on Good Friday – over and over. It was a very moving experience."

She said a hymn she sings in the choir, "Oh Holy Jesus," kept playing in her head while she was inside the church.

At the Garden of Gethsemane, Kolesar said the olive trees looked exactly like she imagined them from the Scriptures.

"The beautiful olive trees are in such stark contrast with the agony of the garden," she noted.

As the pilgrims walked back to their bus from Mount Zion, where they saw the room of the Last Supper, DeJean reflected on the "beautiful and moving" day she had.

"In so many places where I was today, I felt with God," she said shaking as tears were starting to fall from her eyes.

— Kimberly Bender, online reporter

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