A good pilgrimage is composed of several elements. It is mainly driven by an initial calling to which we respond and offer our full availability and receptivity for inner guidance. This is when our journey really starts. From this point until we reach our destination there are other elements that play important roles including how to prepare ourselves before the actual departure. For this reason we provide you with our spiritual assistance at every stage of your journey.
We are happy to come and visit your group, planning together a series of meetings. In this way your journey will be an ongoing process enriched by daily experience before and after the actual pilgrimage.
Our main focus is to provide the right spiritual assistance to each group. These are mainly priests who are carefully trained by ORP. However each group is very welcome to sponsor its own leader. They will receive all our support so that they can dedicate their time and efforts to assisting their group.
Usually wherever we go we prefer to involve local guides and experts to support the local communities. As we consider the Holy Land a special kind of pilgrimage, we select and train our guides to transmit information based on the Catholic tradition and to provide pilgrims with the spiritual support intrinsically connected to this information. We view our guides as helping to enrich our faith, not merely fulfilling our intellectual interests with facts.
Our guides have strong Catholic backgrounds and a deep knowledge of the Bible, including places and events connected to the Holy Land, as well as a profound sense of care for our pilgrims. The level of education required is at least a 4-5 year university degree, mainly in Theology, Archeology, Biblical Studies, Ancient Languages, etc. The training to become a Holy Land Guide is based on a course that usually that takes place in the headquarters of ORP in Rome followed by an exam and a period of training in the Holy Land.
In order to better support our pilgrims and spiritual guides we provide each group with a Pastoral Assistant, usually a lay person with a strong Catholic background and extensive experience guiding pilgrimages and caring about people.
The role of the Pastoral Assistant is to help the group in any situation, checking in/out hotels, managing relationships with our local service providers, and resolving unexpected issues. In this way the accompanying priest will be able to dedicate his full attention to the group and leave any practical issues to the pastoral assistant.
Pastoral Assistants are trained by ORP in our headquarters in Rome. They follow a course and complete an exam after which they will be asked for a period of time to assist on pilgrimages, working together with senior pastoral assistants.
We are planning to organize courses for pastoral assistants who wish to volunteer to accompany our groups from Canada, the United States and Mexico. If you are interested, please send us your resume and contact information to our email josp@ornit.net, reference: Pastoral Assistant Course.
ORNIT, May 19, 2013
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ORNIT specializes in organizing customized itineraries. We will help plan your journey whether you are a church group, organization, student program, or just you.
5605 N. MacArthur Blvd., Suite 1000
Irving, Texas USA 75038
Email: josp@ornit.net
mobile +1 972 819 2104
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