Travelers who visited the Holy Land Jan. 7-16 as part of the grandparents’ pilgrimage stand in front of the Jerusalem skyline with the Dome of the Rock visible behind them. “This was where Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem before his passion,” pilgrim Debbie Keller (bottom left, in red) said of the site the where the photo was taken. An Islamic shrine, the Dome of the Rock sits on the Temple Mount, where the Jewish Second Temple sat before Romans destroyed it in 70 A.D. The pilgrimage was organized by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ Office of Evangelization. COURTESY DEBBIE KELLER

Rod and Rita Kunkel’s visits to Jesus’ birthplace, the mountain where he gave the beatitudes and other sites in the Holy Land have them looking forward to giving their grandchildren a “high-definition” version of Bible stories.

“It’s just going to make it so much easier to communicate the readings of the Bible,” said Rod Kunkel, a member with his wife of St. John the Baptist in Savage. “Especially if we can describe the environment where they took place.”

The Kunkels, both 58, have five grandchildren and are anticipating the births of two more. They traveled to the Holy Land Jan. 7-16 as part of a pilgrimage with 18 other grandparents and “spiritual” grandparents organized through the Grandparents Ministry of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ Office of Evangelization.

The group wanted to walk where Jesus walked and pray together for their families and grandchildren. Only Father Joseph Bambenek, their chaplain, had been to the Holy Land before.

“This is an experience grandparents want for our grandchildren, to encounter Jesus as a real person who lived and died to save us,” said Crystal Crocker, director of the Office of Evangelization and pilgrimage leader. “To bring them (grandchildren) to the Holy Land isn’t realistic, but we can bring back the beautiful stories of our trip and inspire them to want to learn more about Jesus and our faith.”

The group visited sites including the Sea of Galilee near the city of Tiberias; Mount Tabor, the site of the Transfiguration; and the Via Dolorosa (Way of the Cross) in Jerusalem. They prayed daily for their grandchildren.

In addition to this first-of-its-kind trip to the Holy Land, the Grandparents Ministry provides resources and programs to support and equip grandparents as they encourage their families to live their Catholic faith and keep their grandchildren engaged in it.

Most pilgrims were in their 50s and 60s, several were in their 70s and 80s. Several who had no grandchildren prayed for ones they may one day have or for others’ grandchildren.

The Kunkels said they found comfort in traveling with grandparents near their age.

“I think on a pilgrimage you’re holding many people’s intentions in prayer … so to know we were with a group that would all be taking their grandchildren with them in prayer was a beautiful thing,” Rita Kunkel said.

Debbie Keller, 61, a member of St. Pius X in White Bear Lake, prayed for her two granddaughters and their families who have experienced health problems. She discovered that Nativity displays are kept up all year in Israeli churches and sensed God telling her to make more room in the “inn of her heart” for her family and others. Now, she plans to keep a Nativity scene out all year and share Bible stories with her granddaughters.

“I, too, want that scene present, that it’s Christmas all year long in our home, meaning we welcome you as the Savior,” Keller said.

When a friend told Pam Petersen, 67, about the pilgrimage, the parishioner at St. Ignatius in Annandale saw an opportunity to “expand my knowledge, deepen my faith and connect the two in a way that I could share with my children and grandchildren.”

Hearing Bible stories at the sites where the stories occurred, such as the wedding feast at Cana, was a highlight for Petersen. With pictures from the trip, she is creating a small book of Bible stories so her five grandchildren can see the sites.

“I know they will read (the book), and it’ll last a long time after I’m gone,” she said.

The first story Crocker plans to tell her six (with another on the way) grandchildren is of visiting Jesus’ birthplace and the Bethlehem hills where angels announced his birth to the shepherds.

So that more grandparents can grow in faith and pray with other grandparents, the archdiocese hopes to offer more pilgrimages to the Holy Land and other locations, Crocker said.

“If we take the time, money and sacrifice to go on a pilgrimage, God is going to give the grace as we come back to share that experience with our grandchildren,” she said. “Coming together, doing something together and supporting this effort, we feel that we can make a difference with God.”