Today I finally arrived on Israeli time. A good night’s sleep makes all the difference when you are traveling with a tight schedule. We started off early for some bus rides to the nearby the Sea of Galilee. It was a very busy day but well coordinated with seeing the sites efficiently.

Basilica of the Annunciation and Church of St. Joseph

The Basilica is the third church that is located over what is believed to be old church was completely demolished in 1954 to allow for the construction of a new basilica. A competing view is that the Church was the site of the Holy House of Mary. The new basilica was built during years 1960–1969.

Pope Paul VI celebrated Mass in the new church during his trip to the Holy Land in 1964 The basilica was completed in 1969.

Used by the Latin parish, it remains under the control of the Franciscans. It is the largest Christian Church building or sanctuary in the Middle East under the supervision of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches.

Pope John Paul II made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land for the Great Jubilee of 2000 and celebrated Mass at the Basilica of the Annunciation on March 25, 2000. Pope Benedict celebrated Mass in the Basilica in May 2009 during his trip to Nazareth.

St. Joseph’s Church is a Franciscan Roman Catholic church in the Old City of Nazareth. It was built in 1914 over the remains of much older churches. It is located next to the Church of the Annunciation. The church celebrates Joseph’s carpentry background with wood ceiling and treatments throughout. The Church is built on top of what is believed to be Joseph’s home. A Jewish bath along with artifacts have lead to this conclusion over the centuries.

Mary’s Well

Is the site where, according to Gospel of James, Archangel Gabriel appeared to Mary, mother of Jesus and announced that she would bear the Son of God – an event known as the Annunciation. The spring still runs and is currently covered

Cana

The Catholic Church located in the central part of the town of Kafr Kanna (Cana), in Lower Galilee. It is dedicated to the weddings of Christianity. Its name commemorates the event of the Wedding at Cana from the Gospel of John, thought by some Christians to have taken place on the site, during which Jesus performed his first miracle, by turning water into wine at the request or behest of Mother Mary.

The Church is owned by the Custody of the Holy Land, part of the Franciscan order in the Catholic Church. The current church was built circa 1881, and expanded from 1897-1905, following efforts by the Franciscans to acquire the site between 1641 and 1879, when acquisition was completed. Twentieth-century archaeological excavations indicated that, before the current church building, the site housed a Jewish synagogue in the fourth and fifth centuries, and tombs under the rule of the Byzantine Empire in the fifth and sixth centuries.

In 1901 the current facade was built, and September 30, 1906, Bishop Angelo Roncalli consecrated the altar. In the second half of the 1990s, the Holy Land began an extensive renovation of the church, completed in 1999.

Mount Precipice

Mount of Precipitation, Mount of the Leap of the Lord and Mount Kedumim is located just outside the southern edge of Nazareth, 2.0 km southwest of the modern city center.

It is believed by some to be the site of the Rejection of Jesus described in the Gospel of Luke (Luke 4:29-30). According to the story, the people of Nazareth, not accepting Jesus as Messiah tried to push him from the mountain, but “he passed through the midst of them and went away.”