Southern Nebraska Register
Father Christopher Eckrich and Father Andrew Litt, priests of the Diocese of Lincoln, will lead a pilgrimage in February 2026 to Greece and Türkiye.
The pilgrimage, directed by Journey of Faith Tours will visit important locations of the New Testament “in the footsteps of St. Paul,” experiencing what he experienced as he traveled to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles.
“A pilgrimage to the Holy Land is an experience which words cannot adequately describe,” Father Eckrich said. “To see the homeland of the Savior, and to see ‘in the flesh’ the sites and locations that countless Christians throughout the centuries have always read about in the Sacred Scriptures, changes your perspective of the bible in a irrevocable way.”
He said the Holy Land is called the fifth Gospel because of the way it reveals the person of Jesus.
“Jesus is a human like us in all things but sin,” he said, “and has a homeland and a place where he made memories, just like us; and was born into a nation with a history, just like ours, albeit unique to that part of the world.”
While everyone rightly considers large portions of the Middle East to be the “Holy Land,” he added, the story doesn’t contain itself to those hallowed hills. Many of the Pauline writings took place in what is presently Rome, Greece, and Türkiye. There is a rich history in these places, the first locations to receive the Good News, as it spread beyond Jerusalem to the four corners of the World.
The pilgrimage will conclude at the site of the First Ecumenical Council in 325, Nicaea (now Iznik), during its 1,700th anniversary year, where the Church solemnly proclaimed that Jesus Christ is Truly God—giving us the Nicene Creed, which we still recite each Sunday.
“This is a beautiful opportunity to experience the development of the Faith, as a continuation of the Holy Land,” Father Eckrich said, “to see how it progressed, and where it went, after the Holy Spirit sent forth the apostolic Church into the unknown, to bring the news of our Salvation to each member of the human family.”
To learn more or to register, contact Caroyn Norbut at 732-216-8073, or visit www.JourneyofFaithTours.com/DLGT26.
