Pilgrims often return home from the Holy Land with a feeling of having personally experienced the scandal that is division between churches. Father Frans Bouwen, a priest of the Missionaries of Africa in Jerusalem who faithfully joins his fellow White Fathers in fulfilling their calling to pray for unity, has observed the evolution of ecumenical dialogue for the past 40 years. He spoke with us about the matter, providing a glimpse of current affairs.

Marie-Armelle Beaulieu, Custodia di Terra Santa

A three-member medical team from Hungarian Baptist Aid is in Egypt, helping both Palestinians and Israelis affected by the current Gaza crisis.

Baptist World Aid, the relief-and-development arm of the Baptist World Alliance, gave an initial grant of $10,000 for medical treatment of people who have fled the fighting, in its 13th day as of press time Jan. 8. Other planned relief projects include counseling and relief programs in the heavily bombed Israeli city of Sderot, said BWAid Director Paul Montacute.

By Bob Allen, ABPnews, 08 January 2009

Pastor of the Christian Alliance Church in the old City of Jerusalem writes 12 practical ways you can pray for the situation in Gaza.

"I am not going to report to you more of everything that is going on, since all the news are talking daily about it. The following are ways you can pray for the situation"

Jack Sara, Special For "Come and See", Jan 14, 2009

Braving the humid cold on January 1 in Nazareth, clergy and local Christians inaugurated the new route for visiting the sanctuary of the Annunciation in Nazareth.

“People arriving at the sanctuary didn’t know where to go". There was no route and no indications. This year was a record year as to the number of tourists and pilgrims, while at the same time there was a certain confusion. The project was designed with Jaime Buhigas and Berta Grasset, both from Madrid. They were the architects for the project and are specialists in arranging sacred spaces.

Custodia Web site, Jan 3, 2009

The world isn't just watching the Israeli government commit a crime in Gaza; we are watching it self-harm. This morning, and tomorrow morning, and every morning until this punishment beating ends, the young people of the Gaza Strip are going to be more filled with hate, and more determined to fight back, with stones or suicide vests or rockets. Israeli leaders have convinced themselves that the harder you beat the Palestinians, the softer they will become. But when this is over, the rage against Israelis will have hardened, and the same old compromises will still be waiting by the roadside of history, untended and unmade.

To understand how frightening it is to be a Gazan this morning, you need to have stood in that small slab of concrete by the Mediterranean and smelled the claustrophobia. The Gaza Strip is smaller than the Isle of Wight but it is crammed with 1.5 million people who can never leave. They live out their lives on top of each other, jobless and hungry, in vast, sagging tower blocks. From the top floor, you can often see the borders of their world: the Mediterranean, and Israeli barbed wire. When bombs begin to fall – as they are doing now with more deadly force than at any time since 1967 – there is nowhere to hide.

Johann Hari, The Independent, Dec 29, 2008

Jesus knew that His Father loved Him because He always did that which pleased Him. What will it take for God the Father to answer His Beloved Son's prayer?:

"I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your Word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.

Howard Bass, Jan 9, 2009, Special For "Come and See"

The pastor of the Catholic parish in Gaza City described Gaza as "drowning in blood" as hospitals overflowed with patients.

In a message to participants in a special Mass for peace at St. Stephen Church in Jerusalem Jan. 4, Msgr. Manuel Musallam, pastor of Holy Family Parish in Gaza City, wrote: "What you see on television cannot be compared to what is happening. The word love is choking in my throat. ... We are living like animals in Gaza. We cry and nobody hears us. I am asking God for mercy and pray that the light of Christianity continues to shine in Gaza."

By Judith Sudilovsky, Catholic News Service, Jan 5, 009

A Fox News Special Report on Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of Hamas founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef, and his decision to abandon his Muslim faith, denounce his father's organization, move to America and become a Christian

From Youtube, Jan 4, 2009

A Fox News Special Report on Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of Hamas founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef, and his decision to abandon his Muslim faith, denounce his father's organization, move to America and become a Christian