Father Marco Pasinato at the Refreshing Springs of the Holy Land
Psalm 87 continues: “This one was born here!” Jesus Christ, God made man, was born in the Holy Land. That is why Christians joyfully dance and sing: “All my springs are in you.” These words from Psalm 87 are the title of the book on Carmen Hernández’s pilgrimage to Israel in 1963–64 (Sono in te tutte le mie fonti, 2023). Carmen (1930–2016) and Kiko Argüello were the first to begin the Neocatechumenal Way. Since then, thousands of Christians around the world have embarked on this Way.
Before starting the Way with Kiko, Carmen spent nearly a year in the Holy Land discerning her vocation. In the significant places of salvation history, she experienced God’s grace bringing her comfort, guidance, and encouragement. The words of the Bible, and their meaning in Carmen’s life, were confirmed in the heart and mind of the praying pilgrim through her contact with the holy places and the presence of Christ there. For it was in this very land, in these very places, that salvation became incarnate. It was here that God made man looked at and touched people, animals, earth, stones, and buildings, breathed the air, drank water, and ate bread. Here is the place where He sat and spoke to the people, the place where He was crucified and rose from the dead, and the places where Jesus appeared to His disciples and ascended into heaven. When all the miracles – including those of the Old Testament and the early Church – took place in these landscapes, the prayerful reading of the Scriptures here can touch a person in a special way. This is what happened to Carmen. God abundantly shares His gifts with those who long for and seek Him.
Italy – Finland – Philippines
Fr. Marco Pasinato emphasises that such experiences of grace and spiritual gifts are highly personal and are by no means guaranteed to all who travel to the Holy Land. God shares His goodness at the time He deems best for each person.
Fr. Marco is used to travelling. At the age of five, he moved from Italy to Finland as the child of a missionary family. As a high school student, he moved to Rome and began discerning his vocation at the Redemptoris Mater Seminary. After taking a gap year from seminary to work in his native Ivrea, Italy, his call to the priesthood grew stronger, and he returned to seminary, from where he was sent to Manila in the Philippines, and eventually back to Finland to the diocesan Redemptoris Mater Missionary Seminary in Helsinki. Bishop Teemu Sippo SCJ ordained Fr. Marco a priest in the Church of the Holy Family in Oulu in 2010. Since then, Fr. Marco has served the Diocese of Helsinki as parochial vicar and parish priest in St Henry’s Cathedral Parish, before moving in 2019 to Kauniainen as rector of the diocesan Redemptoris Mater Seminary. He also served as diocesan chancellor from 2019 to 2023 while the diocese awaited a new bishop.
To the Holy Land
In autumn 2023, around the same time that Bishop Raimo Goyarrola was ordained Bishop of Helsinki, the Domus Bethania in the Holy Land, under the care of the Neocatechumenal Way, was preparing a training programme to assist priests in their further studies and to invite them to be refreshed by meditating on the Word of God in the holy places. Domus Bethania works in collaboration with the Pontifical Lateran University, and the training programme is part of a licentiate degree approved by the pontifical university. Fr. Francesco G. Voltaggio, rector of Domus Bethania, co-authored the book mentioned earlier about Carmen Hernández’s pilgrimage in the Holy Land. Carmen’s story inspired the creation of the Domus Bethania programme.
After being freed from his duties as diocesan chancellor, Fr. Marco asked Bishop Raimo for permission to go to the Holy Land, as the rector of Domus Bethania had invited him in the summer to join the first Domus Bethania training session. Bishop Raimo gave his blessing for the journey to Jerusalem, and so Fr. Marco’s wish to live in the Holy Land for a longer period began to come true. In January 2024, he packed his bags for the 11th time to go to Israel – but never before had he stayed there for so long.
On study trips they travelled by car or on foot. In the greenness of March, the road led from Chorazin to Capernaum in Galilee, on foot, just as Jesus’ first disciples had done.
The monastic-style community at Domus Bethania consisted of 22 priests. Four were permanent residents – the rector, vice-rector, professor, and spiritual director – while the other 18 came from around the world. Their years of priesthood ranged from two to twenty-five. Fr. Marco did not know any of the participants beforehand, but they immediately felt like brothers, united by faith. Shared faith was supported by many common practices in the liturgy, prayers, songs, and even in the decoration of church spaces. A willingness to clean, cook, and share everyday tasks together also fostered a good spirit of brotherhood.
Prayer and Study
For Fr. Marco, Domus Bethania and its programme were not primarily about study but about a place that created excellent conditions for prayer. Prayer sustained all activities, and ample time was set aside for it each day. The daily schedule followed an almost monastic order: wake-up at 7:00, lauds, breakfast, lecture/pilgrimage, lunch, study/prayer, Mass, dinner, compline, and silence at 22:00.
Teaching focused on salvation history (Storia della Salvezza) from three perspectives: the Word, the liturgy, and the community. The starting point was the way the first Christians celebrated the liturgy and lived as a community, and their Hebrew roots. Additional perspectives came from philosophical and anthropological sources and from the new insights of the Second Vatican Council, leading to a search for treasures in the Church Fathers and to an open engagement with the ecumenical and interreligious challenges of the modern world, as well as the necessity of the New Evangelisation.
The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa OFM, solemnly blessed Domus Bethania at Easter 2024. Rector Voltaggio is to the left of the Patriarch, and Fr. Marco is second to the right of the Patriarch.
The second part of the studies, the salvific places (Geografia della Salvezza), introduced participants to the holy sites. This was the most significant and fruitful part for Fr. Marco:
“We visited places previously unknown to many of us, although we had read about them – in Egypt, Turkey, and the Sinai desert, for example. But it is quite different to read about the Sinai desert and to stand in its midst, seeing how stony and red it is, or to feel in one’s body what it means to climb from Jericho to Jerusalem, ascending nearly a thousand metres. These places, when combined with the Scriptures we meditated on, seem almost to become incarnate, and the allegorically understood Word of God comes alive. It is as if you breathe the Bible in this landscape. The Word of God enters into you and shapes you.”
Silent Jerusalem
When the focus turned from history to the present day, Jerusalem was quiet and deserted because of the war. One could sense tension among the inhabitants. With tourists and pilgrims absent, hopeless unemployment increased. For many, begging became a necessity for survival. On the other hand, with no crowds at the holy places, one could spend long periods in silent prayer in the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth, in Gethsemane, or at the Holy Sepulchre. There were police checkpoints on the streets. Access to Palestinian territories was severely restricted. Only the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa OFM, was allowed to make regular visits to the Gaza Strip. The threat of the war spreading was constant. One had to live day by day, trusting in God and being ready for any change.
Now, in August 2025, we await the return of Fr. Federico Spanò to Finland from the Domus Bethania in Jerusalem, where he has been on sabbatical since last October with forty priestly colleagues – just as Fr. Marco had been the previous year. For Fr. Marco, the Holy Land is a source of spiritual refreshment.
Eeva Vitikka-Annala
Photo caption: Students of the Diocesan Missionary Seminary of Helsinki took part in a pilgrimage in February 2024, guided by their rector, Fr. Marco Pasinato. They visited, among other places, Megiddo, the site of many decisive battles since ancient times.