IVMission
Who lives at Domus Galilaeae Monastery and what its mission is.
Who lives here?
Brothers and sisters belonging to the Neocatechumenal Way live in the house.
What is their mission?
It welcomes the Neocatechumenal communities that come to Israel after completing the Neocatechumenal Way, to make “a honeymoon journey” and then the spiritual marriage (Statutes).
It also welcomes cardinals and bishops during Easter week.
Every day the house is open free of charge to those who wish to visit it: Jews, Arabs and pilgrims who come to the Holy Land.
“Go to Galilee; there you will see me”
Cf. Matthew 28:10
Study and formation
The “Domus Galilaeae Monastery” centre is a place where Christians, and above all seminarians and priests, can have direct contact with the living tradition of Israel, following in the footsteps of Saint Justin, Origen, Saint Jerome and so many other Fathers of the Church, to understand the meaning of the prayer, the feasts and the Hebrew liturgies that were the daily nourishment of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
The presence in Israel of many of the greatest scholars of Scripture and of prestigious biblical schools makes Domus Galilaeae Monastery the ideal place to promote a recovery of the study of Scripture as witness to the living presence of God.
It helps Christians go deeper into the roots of their own faith; a place to build peace, to see God. John Paul II too, in the Apostolic Exhortation Dies Domini, put forward the need to return to the Hebrew roots in order to understand and live Christianity and give impetus to the new evangelisation.
Reading the Gospel in the light of the Tradition and the Liturgies of the people of God helps us understand “the mystery of this people, which does not prove the existence of God but, as a living witness, proclaims His presence throughout history”.Carmen Hernández
In recent years
In recent years other monasteries have been opened.
Jerusalem
For seminarians of the Redemptoris Mater seminaries who come to Israel and spend six months at Domus Galilaeae Monastery and six months at Domus Mambre Monastery.
Bethany · Mount of Olives
In the places where the Word became flesh, the Domus Bethaniae Monastery offers priests and lay people a year of formation, prayer and study, to deepen their knowledge of Christian origins and return to the sources of the faith in the very land of the Incarnation and the Resurrection.
It is a house of formation in Jerusalem, near the ancient biblical village of Bethany, on the slopes of the Mount of Olives, a few hundred metres from the sanctuary of Bethphage, along the road Jesus took to enter Jerusalem: at the heart of the Gospel places where Christ lived friendship and intimacy with Lazarus, Martha and Mary.
Bethlehem
It welcomes the communities of the Way passing through Bethlehem.
Mount of Beatitudes · Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem
“Follow me and I will make you fishers of men” Mk 1:17
It is a diocesan missionary seminary of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, promoted by the Neocatechumenal Way, located on the Mount of Beatitudes. It was canonically erected on 29 June 2009 by the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Fouad Twal, in communion with the Greek Catholic Archbishop of Galilee, Archbishop Elias Chacour, and the Maronite Archbishop of Haifa and the Holy Land, Archbishop Paul Nabil Sayah.
It forms young people and adults for the priesthood who, incardinated in the local Church, make themselves available for the new evangelisation of the Holy Land, of the countries of the Middle East and of the whole world.
The seminarians study at the Studium Theologicum Galilaeae, affiliated since 2011 to the Faculty of Theology of the Pontifical Lateran University: the first centre of Christian philosophy and theology in Galilee affiliated to a pontifical university. They combine their studies with prayer and direct contact with the places of Jesus’ life.
