Just for fun, I checked my pedometer for our ‘travel’ day: It reads 11,598 steps.
No wonder, then, that it feels like I walked half of the way home from the Holy Land.
Airports are no picnic, are they? And we found ourselves trekking through four of them as we made our way home: Ben Gurion, Frankfurt, Chicago/O’Hare and St. Louis/Lambert.
Each time, it seemed, our planes were scheduled to depart / arrive from the furthest gate. (Although when it comes to Frankfurt, I’m not sure how you’d check this assertion: It’s a terminal that seemingly — and ironically — has no end.)
While I did my best to remain cheerful throughout the night-turned-into-never-ending-day, I was admittedly running a quart or two low on shalom by the time we reached Chicago.
There, for reasons that remain unclear to me, our carry-ons received the most vigorous inspections of the entire trip. (Could the screening agents somehow have detected that we are Cardinal fans?)
Suffice it to say, I was in no mood to be trifled with. Fortunately, I am married to a kind and level-headed woman. Her gentle spirit and wise counsel kept me from popping off about the perceived indignities…and eventually we were permitted to go on our way.
Just another example of how she is “Christ” to me, I suppose. When the world presents temptations for me to start acting a fool, Gerri somehow manages to channel a saving grace my way.
It’s definitely tough duty, in part because of the Evil One’s relentlessness — as Jesus Himself discovers in the Gospel passage we hear on this, the first Sunday of Lent:
When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from [Jesus] for a time. (Luke 4:13)
Let us remember that we are in the presence of the Holy and Merciful One.
IHS
With Us Still 
I understand your frustration. The turbulence of the flight back to the states made me so sick and then my electronic tablet was stolen out of ,my luggage somewhere on the way back. So glad to be home but loved the world derail experience and all the woneedful people in our group
Pat
Oh, Pat…so sorry to hear about the theft of your tablet! You were using to take photos, no doubt? It won’t be exactly the same as having your own pix, but there are a lot of good images on Fr Jeff’s google album…so that could help restore some of your loss.
And despite that “coming home” frustration…I totally agree: this was a marvelous experience—in large part because of the wonderful, prayerful, joyful people we had as companions!
It seems like ages ago we went on this trip. Awesome and fabulous come to mind in addition to laughing at our Dead Sea dives!
You are a great writer. Ditto your sentiments.
Could we star again or get a “do over” ?
Thanks to everyone as companions on the journey that continues to guide our hearts and minds.
Thanks for the kind words, Mary…and agreed: it’s an experience worth repeating—although I can’t imagine being blessed by a better group of pilgrims than the one we had!
Beautiful, spirit filled people… especially the crew at the “back of the bus”!!😇😎👍