About
Bible, Theology, Spirituality, Liturgy, Life.
A Time of Formation for the Priesthood in the Holy Land: Discovering Unity
Two two-week modules: 8–21 August 2027 and 8–21 August 2028.
For the first session, the following provisional programme is envisaged:
- 1 day: Introduction to the programme, including seminar-style sessions.
- 2 days: Visits to the principal holy sites of Jerusalem.
- 1 day: Exploring the unifying transition from the Bible to the Liturgy.
- 1 day: Visit to the Dead Sea.
- 7 days: Individually guided Ignatian Spiritual Exercises.
- 1 day: Visit to Bethlehem and a renewed reflection on the approach to the Bible and the Liturgy.
The programme may be subject to change depending on the local situation.
Jerusalem: A Gateway into the Mystery of God — 2 Days
The first four days will be devoted to entering into Jerusalem from physical, spiritual and intellectual perspectives. Guided reflection and spiritual exercises will help participants encounter the life-giving mystery at the heart of Christian life and ecclesial life, a mystery for which Jerusalem has been, and continues to be, the original and enduring custodian.
Visits will include some of the city's principal holy sites, such as the City of David, the Temple Mount, Bethany, the Mount of Olives and Gethsemane, the Upper Room, the site of the Flagellation, the Holy Sepulchre, the House of Caiaphas and other places associated with the life, Passion, death and Resurrection of Jesus and the birth of the Church.
These visits will be more than simply tourist excursions. They will offer an opportunity to learn about and enter into contact and communion with the communities that have inhabited these places throughout the centuries, preserving and handing down their spiritual riches to the present day.
This first part of the programme will conclude with a day trip to the Dead Sea and its surrounding landscapes, places of particular significance in the history of salvation.
The Spiritual Exercises — 7 Days
At the heart of the experience will be seven days of the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises. Where possible, and according to the preference of each participant, the Exercises will be accompanied by a personal spiritual director.
The daily rhythm will include extended periods of personal prayer, individual meetings with the spiritual director, silence and discernment.
There will also be communal moments for the celebration of the Eucharist, evening meetings with witnesses from local communities, and testimonies from Palestinians, Jews, Christians and religious men and women who experience the realities of the Holy Land in their daily lives.
In this way, personal prayer will be enriched by listening to a land and its peoples who, amid their struggles and hopes, continue to seek paths towards reconciliation and peace.
Bethlehem: Birth in the Fullness of Time
The final day will be devoted to revisiting the approach to the Bible, the Liturgy and the land experienced throughout the programme. This process of reflection will foster deeper integration and personal appropriation of the experience, helping participants discover its power to bring unity to their lives and to their pastoral ministry.
Why Theological and Spiritual Formation in the Holy Land?
Encountering Jerusalem, the local communities and the land where the Paschal Mystery originated offers a journey towards God and a prayer for peace, capable of helping each person discover the distinctive shape of a life in Christ.
Engaging with the Bible, the Liturgy and theology in the very places where they took concrete shape can bring a particular depth of meaning and allow the Spirit to release its unifying power within the person, their life, their relationships with others and their engagement with the concrete realities of the world around them.
In Jerusalem, the Gospel is not merely a text to be read, and prayer—especially liturgical prayer—is not simply something to be performed. It is life to be heard and an encounter to be celebrated in the places, the stones, the landscapes and the people.
The city's silence, prayer in the holy sites and encounters with local communities make it possible to live an experience in which prayer, discernment, Scripture and intercession for peace become interwoven.
In a Holy Land marked by divisions and suffering, study, reflection, experience and prayer also become acts of intercession for peace, as we entrust Jerusalem, its inhabitants and all the peoples of the region to the Lord.
A Simple and Unassuming Experience
Participants will stay at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Jerusalem, in a simple setting conducive to prayer and silence. Accommodation will be in modest rooms, some of which may not have private bathrooms.