Author Description

The 26 articles of “In the Footprints of Our Faith” offer religious, historical, and archaeological considerations about important sites in the Holy Land: Nazareth, Ein Karem, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, the Jordan River, Cana, Capernaum, the Lake of Gennesaret, Bethany, Emmaus... The original monthly series was written as a way to celebrate the Year of Faith opened by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012, and closed by Pope Francis in 2013. Here we present a compilation of these articles, sponsored by the Saxum Foundation. We began them in hopes of helping each reader personally “immerse” themselves in the Gospel, as St. Josemaria Escriva recommended, so that the Word of God may have a deep and lasting effect on the reader’s life. St. Josemaria had always wanted to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and dreamed of starting various apostolic initiatives there which would help the Church. He was never able to fulfill this dream, but his first successor, Blessed Alvaro del Portillo, was able to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land from March 14–22, 1994. On the morning of March 23rd, only a few hours after Blessed Alvaro’s return to Rome, God called him to Heaven. With the faithful of Opus Dei and those with a devotion to Blessed Alvaro in mind, there are references to his final days in the Holy Land scattered throughout the text of the extended edition of “In the Footprints of Our Faith”.