Come to Israel, Day 3, 2019, continues; Day 4 begins.

When we arrived at the Church of the Beatitudes, we could see the Lake behind it. But one of the first things Leo pointed out was the mosaic-tiled plaza in front of the church itself.

The massive area was totally tiled in blue, ocean-like swirls that incorporated little scenes from Jesus’ life and the Apostles, as well as scenes of different saints .

Turning away from the church, we climbed a series of stairs to the outside chapel, on a hill above the church overlooking the Sea.

To the left of our seating area were rolling hills very much like the one we were one, but in their natural state.  I could easily envision Jesus preaching to the 5,000 on that hill…   ! 

After mass, we checked out a great little gift shop, then we headed back down to the church. The columned sides of the outside of the church had lovely views of the sea all around it.

The left side showing the columns, And the view on the right side of the church

As we entered the church, we saw that all of the windows  held images of Jesus preaching, like this one

The inside of the church was simple, lovely and round.  The altar was separated from the people by a round wall with huge, rounded doorways, with kneelers filling them.   Like all pilgrims, we paused here to pray.

Later, when we headed back to the bus, we passed church gardens, and along one side of the pathway was a neat stone design honoring the 5 loaves and 2 fishes, that Jesus had multiplied to feed the 5,000 on this very hillside.

 Our stop for the Friday post was a surprise – we’d be boarding a boat for our own trip on the Sea of Galilee.

(Note to those who went on the trip with us:  I’ve held a few of our stops for a week of postings after Easter, since they deal with things after Jesus’ resurrection.)