Pilgrimage Story: Christ in My Heart
Date: September 22, 2023
Summary:
A personal reflection describing a transformative pilgrimage to the Holy Land with Orthodox Tours, led by Fr. Ilya Gotlinsky, highlighting the spiritual depth of the journey.
Excerpt:
“At Bethany in the Holy Land, I felt the knowledge of Jesus Christ move from my head to my heart.
I have been a Christian most of my life, actively pursuing a faith that is real, sincere, earnest, honest, and true. I became Orthodox in 1998 at age 41 and continued my faith journey.
But it was in 2010, on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with Orthodox Tours, led by Fr Ilya Gotlinsky, that I had the remarkable experience that I count as one of the most important in my life. Initially, I did not share this experience broadly, as it felt too profound and deep, but now I feel able to speak of it openly.
We were visiting the small Orthodox School of Bethany, run by nuns of the Ecclesiastical Mission of the Russian Orthodox Church, located near Jerusalem, near the wall separating Israel from the Palestinian Territories. Over 400 girls attend school here–Christians (although their numbers are diminishing) alongside Moslems–receiving an excellent education under difficult circumstances.
On the school grounds where the sisters had decided to build a playground, they uncovered an ancient church: large paving stones from the Roman Road along which Christ would have traveled many times, and pillars from a basilica. Another find from the site was especially remarkable: a large smooth stone with an inscription in Greek, “Where Martha and Mary heard from the Lord about the Resurrection of the dead and the Lord.” The early Church literally marked for remembrance the very stone where Martha met Christ when He was coming to Bethany for Lazarus’s death! This was where, in John 11, we hear Martha declare her faith to Him: “I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is come into the world.” Martha, the active one of the two sisters, ran back to get her sister Mary, and scripture says He waited where Martha had met him–on that very stone.
The church recovered the stone, carved the inscription, and treated it as a relic by building an altar it, and then enclosed it inside a church. After the Persians destroyed much of Jerusalem, including this church, in 614, it lay under rubble until the sisters of the Orthodox School of Bethany uncovered it. They have since built a small chapel over the stone.
My patron saint is Martha. When I became Orthodox, I had no question about which saint should be my patron. I am a busy servant and helper by nature, even though my heart…”