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Introduction:We are a French family: parents, Gwénoléand Charlotte, CLC members for 7 years,and our three children: Xavier, 12 yearsold, Yann, 10 years and Solenn, 7 years. Weleft for a sabbatical year from the end ofJune 2015 to the end of June 2016 to travelto Bethlehem and back. We covered 4500kms by bike the length of the Euro-bicycletrail n. 6, which links the Atlantic Ocean,through Nantes and continues right to the

Black Sea. From there we continued onfoot and by public buses. After the Eurocy-cle n. 6, we reached Istanbul by bus, andthen we followed the footsteps of St Paul.At the beginning of December we went byplane to Israel. There, we walked in the de-sert following Abraham and Moses, thenheaded for Bethlehem to spend Christmasthere. After Bethlehem we followed the fo-otsteps of Jesus through Galilee to Jerusa-lem. We returned through Greece throughthe via Ignatia1 from Thessalonika and El-basan, then Montenegro, Croatia, BosniaHerzegovina to Medjugorje, Slovenia andfinally to Venice, Italy, where we ended ourjourney. We then returned to France by thetrain from Venice.

Experiencing growth in thefamilyWe spent a year together, all five of us, al-most 24 hours every day. In these circum-stances, friction between adults, betweenchildren, and parents/children is inevitable.So we worked at patience and forgiveness,and tried to let go some of our pride whenthings did not go according to our plans.

The encounters that we experienced veryoften did not allow us to live in isolation,and helped us to keep our irritations andannoyances in proportion.

After a year with the family, what particu-larly came to the surface was a better under-standing between parents and children. Noweach one of us is able to imitate to perfectionthe odd habits and defects of the others! Weparents know the talents and abilities of ourchildren better, thanks to the conversationswe had while walking, and also because wewere their teachers for the year.

We have many memories in common, likea sort of storehouse that we can dip into asthe foundation of our family story.

Towards Bethlehem as a FamilyCharlotte and Gwénolé Berchon

Above: the BERCHON family:Gwénolé, Yann, Charlotte,Solenn and Xavier.

Below: the major milestones inthe Berchon family journey.

1 Via Ignatia, a 2nd century Roman road.

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Our experience of meetingdifferent CLC groups fromdifferent countriesWe met CLC members in 7 places: in Ne-vers in France, in Passau in Germany, inLinz and Vienna in Austria, in Budapest inHungary, in Rijeka in Croatia, and in Triestein Italy. With each group, we felt welcomedas if by family. We shared moments of kin-ship and joy – meals, swimming, visits,walks, prayer, Mass, Taizé chants, music.We listened to our hosts talk of their coun-try, their history, at times tragic, in Hungaryor Croatia. We talked about life in CLC ineach country, of the flow of a CLC meeting,of the practice of the Spiritual Exercises.We noticed that the communities had fewerguides than in France. In the countries thatwe went to it was essentially the Jesuitswho fulfilled this role several times a year.

At Rijeka, we were present at the end of aMass with about twenty individuals whowere completing a cycle of spiritual exer-cises in daily life. We explained to themhow we had discerned as a family and withour community to make our decision eitherto go away for a year or stay in Nantes.We found as a point in common with ourcompanions: a simple life, at the service ofpilgrims, of suffering individuals, of refu-gees, of psychiatric patients, of young peo-ple and of the community.

The most touching parts ofour tripWe were in awe, of course, of the country-side spread out before us. We had the timeto contemplate Creation: the Danube, themountains and lakes in Turkey and the Bal-kans, the Negev desert, the lake of Tiberias,the Adriatic Sea. We were also very intere-sted in the cultures and the histories of thecountries we traversed.

The great memories of our pilgrimage wereabout the precious encounters with others -faces of God on our road.

We were touched by Father Athenasius inHungary, a Catholic priest, who spontane-

Below: - The cave of the nativity is mar-ked by a star with 14 branches.- Street in Bethlehem by night.- The icons in the chapel of theCenter Mary of Nazareth.

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ously offered us hospitality. Father Athena-sius suffered with his back, but his face ra-diated kindness. Our boys played music forhim; he offered us an ice cream and tookthe time to talk to us. In Rumania, Lucian,an Orthodox priest, married, and father oftwo young boys, had a kindly expression.We saw that he was available to the youngand not so young in his village. When hesaw that one of our tents was soaked by therain, he let us sleep in the church, then in-vited us to the prayer for the dead the nextmorning.

At Bethlehem, where we spent two weeksat Christmas, we met three great witnesses.The first were Greek OrthodoxCatholics/Christians, notably Father Ya-coub, his children and grandchildren. Heremains in Palestine in spite of the difficul-ties of daily life. He helped us to discoverthe Byzantine Rite, marked at one and thesame time by pomp and simplicity.

The second witness, Nicolas Youssama, ayoung Greek Orthodox Christian, was our

guide around Jericho for a whole day. Hewas filled with inner peace in spite of twoadministrative detentions without cause bythe Israelis when he was an adolescent. Thethird, Abdelfattah, a Muslim, is the directorof an association of education and resi-stance through the arts in the refugee campof Aida, Alrowwad2. He spoke to us abouttruth, peace and justice, and he lived by nur-turing interior peace and non-violence.

Albania was another place rich in encoun-ters, particularly with a family that hadpractically nothing to live on, with whomwe stayed for almost 24 hours. We cooked,played and lived together. They are Mu-slim, and our discussions were translatedby their adolescent nephew, an evangelicalProtestant who reads the Bible, prays everyday and wants to become a missionary.

The witnesses to faith of the Croatians inBosnia equally moved us. Lay or Franci-scan, their faith is alive, unburdened by thematerialism and individualism of WesternEurope.

Below from left to right: - The remains of the Byzantinechurch with the cave of thehouse of Mary, site of the An-nunciation.- The pools of Solomon - reser-voirs built by King Solomonthen refurbished by Herod theGreat to supply Herodium andJerusalem via an aqueduct.- Father Yacoub in full regalia.

2 Alrowwad (Pioneers for Life) for Culture and arTs (ACTs) was established in Aida refugee camp-Be-thlehem in 1998 and registered as a not-for-profit organization in August of 2003, …by the Ministry ofInterior of the Palestinian National Authority… in the Ministry of Culture. Alrowwad, initiator of “Be-autiful Resistance,” is an independent, dynamic, community-based not-for-profit organization whichstrives to empower children and women by targeting behavior, knowledge, concepts and practicesthrough creative and non-violent means.

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The graces received, reflec-tions and achievements ofour journey3

In the course of this journey we have beenamazed by the signs of God in the unex-pected, as with this van full of equipmentwhich had stopped in the middle of no-where in Rumania while we had a pun-cture, or again when Gwénolé broke atooth while we were staying in the apar-tment of a young dentist in Macedonia.

We were overwhelmed by the welcome ofthe poorest, who did not hesitate to offer useverything that they had, particularly inSerbia, Rumania, Turkey, Palestine, Greeceand Albania. This led us to question ourown generosity. Our children were perhapsa factor in making this easier, but we expe-rienced kindness and trust much more thanill will and suspicion.

We were struck by the importance of theprotection of Creation and the link with theliving conditions of humankind, as PopeFrancis explains in Laudato si. For exam-ple, we saw piles of rubbish around themost neglected villages or where educationwas lacking.

Plunged into the reality of the “refugee cri-sis”, we imagined what these families mustbe feeling, who are fleeing from war, warin search of a welcoming country in Eu-rope. In fact, we were inspected severaltimes by the police, often after denuncia-tion, at the Hungarian, Greek, Macedonianand Croatian frontiers.

Our prayer was enriched all along the wayby the different Christian traditions andother religions. We remember especiallythe Byzantine and Orthodox icons and fre-scoes that recount the Gospel. We also re-member the Sabbath dinner with a Jewishfamily in Jerusalem. The distribution ofbread and wine by the father of the family,as Jesus did with his disciples, has made ussee the Eucharist in a very real way.

Finally, our greatest grace was to havetime. A whole year to contemplate Crea-tion, (including all the little or big beaststhat fascinated our children), meet the in-

habitants, discover their culture, their pre-occupations, and allow us to be challengedby great and small events.

Now back home, we would love to returnto our former life but not at all as it was.We have noticed that others confide in usmore easily; we would love to continue totake the time for encounters. We have alsodecided to open our door to travellers in thenetwork Warmshower (a free worldwidehospitality exchange for touring cyclists).As for our children, we sense that theyhave more confidence in themselves, andknow better their likes and their wishes. Wehope that this exceptional year will conti-nue to help them grow.

Original in FrenchTranslated by Patricia Kane

Above: together with NicolasOsama, our guide at Jericho.Below: departure from Venicetowards France.

3 You may follow the berchon Family's journey in their blog: http://enfamilleversbethleem.blogspot.it/(in French).