WEDNESDAY 13 NOVEMBER

  I was on the floor at 5.45am - eight hours sleep. 'Amazing!' I thought. I concelebrated Mass with Fr Brendan Magee in the grotto of the Basilica of the Annunciation - the very place where the Angel Gabriel said 'Hail Mary' and where Mary conceived the Saviour of the World. 'Fiat' ('let it be done') was embroidered on the front of my vestment. The words of the Creed 'And he was made man' had special meaning there. After that early Mass, the grotto gates at that altar were locked. We were the only priests to celebrate Mass at that altar in the grotto. All other group Masses took place on other altars outside the gates.

 And now, another adventure in a place I had never seen before! Through conversation with hotel staff, reading guidebooks, a call at the tourist office, and advice from a man on the bus from Nazareth, I arrived in the seaside town of Haifa at 10.00am.

  The man on the bus boasted that the President of Israel was Irish and wished me well when he heard that I was to walk to the top of Mount Carmel. It was a steep but relatively easy walk, and I enjoyed the sight of the seaside town on my right all the way to the top.

  The mountain has been sacred for thousands of years as a hermits' place of prayer. Here, Elijah, in the presence of the prophets and people, invoked the true God to show his power over the false Gods by lighting a fire in the wood which Elijah had ordered to be soaked in water.

It has also been a strategic point in many battles, and is remembered by Christians as the place where the Carmelite Order was founded. I made the Stations of the Cross in the lovely wooded grounds and saw Elijah's cave in the Convent Church.

 It was 11.30am and time for food. I walked down the hillside for a few hundred metres and sat on a rock, eating my tasty packed lunch. As I enjoyed the meal, with the hot sun shining out of a clear sky, and the blue, blue Mediterranean below, I thought that if had lived in the olden days, I might also have joined the hermits on this delightful scenic mountain.

  I brought the diary up-to-date and clambered down the slope to the inviting sea below. I could have dipped in the water anywhere, but I walked a mile further South to a sandy, recognised bathing-place. Shortly after 2.00pm on that November afternoon I took my first wonderfully refreshing swim in the Mediterranean.

  Though I had brought my shorts, the idea of swimming in the sea had never seriously entered my head throughout the planning and preparation of the pilgrimage, or even during the pilgrimage itself, until I was actually on Mount Carmel. I could certainly see the attractiveness of the whole area as a seaside resort. How many people on a beach holiday can take a break from the sea and go on a day trip to Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Galilee?

  Eventually, I left the beach and climbed Mount Carmel again to keep a rendezvous at 4.30pm with the Italian pilgrims who were staying at the Casa Nova, Nazareth. Would everything go according to plan?

  I drank from a large Coca Cola bottle and enjoyed the view - as hermits and monks had done before me - though they didn't have Coca Cola! I met a pilgrim who had been in Ardara, Co Donegal, two weeks previously. I told him that it was my first summer for ten years that I hadn't been to Ardara and Rosbeg.

As the sun set over the Mediterranean in glorious colour, the Italians arrived. They rushed off the coach and dashed to the edge of the slope to admire the view, and with great shouts of delight, took photographs of the beautiful sight.

  Then, as the group looked at the Church, Brother Lawrence, a Franciscan from England, insisted I have a cup of coffee. Do you remember my resolution about not taking chances about getting home in the evenings? I didn't want my plans to go astray and be left behind, but he insisted. I followed him, up steps, down steps, through rooms, corridors, doors, passages until we came to the kitchen. If ever a cup of coffee was thrown at a throat, this was such an occasion. Then, we set off on the return journey through the monastery - it seemed much longer - and dashed outside. There wasn't a sight of a pilgrim. 'Have they gone?' shouted Brother Lawrence, alarm hardly disguised in his voice. Then, we saw that the red and cream bus was still there and the panic subsided.

  As the Italian pilgrims emerged from the Carmel Church, I thought it would be a good idea to go over to greet them, but the ladies looked at me apprehensively and moved away. I thought they would all have recognised me. Obviously not. They must have thought I was one of those strange people pilgrims are warned about. I must admit that I didn't look like the Irish priest they were told would be joining them. After all the walking in the Holy Land, my face was a more Middle Eastern colour!

  However, I was soon welcomed by the happy excited band and practised my limited Italian on them. When we were a few miles out of Haifa, we stopped at a children's home, run by an order of nuns. We were shown around the building by a young sister. She was a very joyful happy nun and you could see in her eyes that she really loved working with the children. Some of the pilgrims told me her story. Six years before, as a pilgrim with a similar Italian group, she had visited this hospital for mentally and physically retarded children. She was so moved by what she saw, that she left the pilgrims, there and then, and stayed behind to look after the children. 'And leaving their nets, they followed him'. The call of Christ is still heard and answered in Galilee.

  Many of the women were in tears at they beheld the plight of the children. As we said goodbye and shook hands with the nursing sisters, some of the pilgrims came to say 'Arrivederci' to me, obviously thinking that I was a member of the hospital staff, - or were they trying to get rid of me.

  Then, the young Italian nun ushered us on the balcony and put before us, a wonderful assortment of cakes, sweets, figs and - Coca Cola! After my early start to the day, the bus journey, the walk up to Mount Carmel, the swim, the prayers (a few!) and the excitement, I was more than ready to eat everything that was set before me - even though it was only a short time since my snack at the monastery. Some days, you are thirsting for food and drink and are never offered one; another day, it is there in abundance! That young nun was certainly one of the happiest people I had ever seen. She was truly radiant in her work for the children and in her hospitality for us pilgrims. There were many tears as we waved goodbye.

  The Italian pilgrims welcomed me back on the bus and made me feel very much at home. On the way back to Nazareth we conversed in a mixture of English, Latin and Italian and, of course, sign language. I had been thinking earlier that the morning, that I really should learn more Italian. 'Some other day,' I thought as I collapsed into bed.