I'm going to post some photos from my pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 2016. If you ever have the opportunity to visit the Holy Places, by all means, seize it. Among many other graces it affords, it transforms the way you read Scripture.

Tabgha, the place of the Primacy of Peter. This is the place on the shore of the See of Galilee where Christ laid out a breakfast of bread and fish for the Apostles and told Peter to "Feed my sheep" (Jn 21).

Capharnaum. Preserved are the remains of a synagogue, built on the foundations of the earlier synagogue where Christ began his ministry (Mk 1:21), and an octagonal church built above the house of Simon Peter, where Christ also lived, such that it was called his "home" (Mk 2).

Outside the walls of Capernaum are some ruins of a Roman villa, traditionally identified as the home of the Centurion from Matthew 8. There were peacocks.

Tabgha, the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves. The first church was built in 350 AD, but like so many churches in the Holy Land, it was rebuilt many times. The floor mosaics are original to the ancient church. In 2015, some buildings in the complex were burned by arson.

Just some countryside and lakeside views of Galilee. There were probably more people living here in Christ's time than there are today. All of Israel's drinking water comes from the Sea of Galilee, so extensive human activity in the area is restricted.

The Church of the Beatitudes, overlooking the Sea of Galilee. This is the place where Christ gathered the crowds and gave the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5). One of many 20th-century architectural gems in the Holy Land by the Italian architect Antonio Barluzzi.

The grand Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth. Under the modern church are the remains of an earlier structure which sat upon a natural cave, identified as the cellar of the house of the Blessed Virgin. The House of Loreto matches up perfectly to the foundations...

In that cellar grotto there is a chapel with an altar inscribed with the words, "Verbum caro ʜɪᴄ factum est" — "ʜᴇʀᴇ the Word was made flesh" (cf. Jn 1:14).

Next to the basilica is the Church of Saint Joseph, built over the carpentry workshop of the husband of the Virgin Mary. It was built in 1914 on the remains of a Crusader church and a connected cave system. It is possible that Saint Joseph worked with stone as well as wood.

Nazareth, the so-called Synagogue Church. This is the place where Jesus preached in his hometown, and was rejected by the people (Lk 4:16). Above the crypt, which preserves the remains of the synagogue, is a Greek Catholic parish church.

The Orthodox Church of the Annunciation. While the Catholic tradition imagines Mary receiving the message of the angel while in contemplation in her own home, the Orthodox imagine her going out to draw water and hearing the angel's summons at a well.

Perhaps both traditions capture some element of the event. Perhaps, as the Blessed Virgin went about the chores of her day, she was caught up in a sacred conversation with the Lord's messenger?

(Who knows?)

Now to the summit of mighty Tabor, the site of a great battle (Jgs 4 and 5), and the place of the Transfiguration (Mt 17, Mk 9, Lk 9).

On the way you find a little chapel called the Chapel of Nemini dixeritis, for here it was that Christ commanded the Apostles: Nemini dixeritis visionem, donec Filius hominis a mortuis resurgat — "Tell the vision to no man, till the Son of man be risen from the dead" (Mt 17:9).

And then you reach the magnificent Church of the Transfiguration, another masterpiece of Barluzzi. Typical of Holy Land churches, it was built on Crusader ruins, themselves built upon ruins of the Byzantine era.

Chapels in the towers commemorate the Prophets Moses and Elijah.

Now to Qasr al-Yahud on the Jordan River, the place of the baptism of Christ by the hands of John. On one side of the river is Israel, and on the opposite bank, the Kingdom of Jordan.

We then visited the remains of the Essene complex in Qumran. The ruins mark the site of a monastic community that produced the manuscripts, found in 1946 by shepherd children in the surrounding caves, known as the Dead Sea Scrolls.

We hiked up into the mountains and found some wildlife.

We also made a stop at the Dead Sea. It was very strange; you literally cannot sink in the water because of its extreme salinity. The mud is supposed to be good for your skin. The "Lowest Bar" was not open... alas.

Back to the holy sites. We made it to Jerusalem and had Mass at the Franciscan Monastery of St. Francis ad Cœnaculum. It is not the actual Cenacle (the place of the Last Supper and Pentecost), but one of the closest places near the complex where you can have Mass.

Nearby is the Abbey of the Dormition, built upon the ancient complex known as Holy Mount Zion. Very close to the Cenacle, it is possibly the place of Our Lady's Assumption. The site was purchased in 1898 by Kaiser Wilhelm II and a beautifully Romanesque votive church constructed.