Check out our video thru Galilee, especially following Peter commissioned as Rock, shepherd and given the keys! Enjoy!

I am in Rome and decided to run to St. John Lateran this morning a make a video — so all of you could enjoy the Feast Day of the Dedication of St. John Lateran Church on November 9, 313. Yup, that’s right! It was the first Christian church ever built and it was the home of Popes for over 1,000 years.

If you want to join us in Rome this February, please call Suzanne at 800-727-1999, extension 121. She can give you info and help you get registered. You will see this church and many more on our marvelous Catholic pilgrimage through the Eternal City.

Click HERE for the brochure for our Rome Pilgrimage. Click HERE for the brochure for our St. Paul Cruise with Scott Hahn which ends in Rome.

St. John Lateran Church is not just the cathedral for the city of Rome, but it is the MOTHER CHURCH of the whole world. It contains the Pope’s Chair, the Chair of St. Peter.

The Church also contains marvelous relics: the cedarwood table Our Lord celebrated the Passover meal on in Jerusalem, St. Peter’s altar which he used as a bishop in Rome.

Also there are the skull bones from both Sts. Peter and Paul in a golden reliquary above the high altar on which only the Pope is allowed to celebrate Mass.

Enjoy! And be proud to be Catholic!

Two Things Available:

1. Here is the map with 18 GPS-tagged videos and 93 pictures where I run across Rome and hit many historical sites and beautiful churches. As a guide, I explain many of the sites along the way.

2. Below is the “Tour Videos” just of St. John Lateran Church.

Today is Sunday so we went to one of the 800+ churches in Rome. it was the Gregorio VII Catholic Church. It was full at 11:30 AM but there were five other Masses today. Imagine that there are an similar number of Masses at the other churches. That is 800 churches x 6 Masses = 4,800 Masses on a given Sunday. Even if some churches have fewer Mass times, it is still an impressive number.

Plus, the people are devout. Many arrive early to pray the Rosary before Mass. The Gregorio VII has a number of side prayer chapels that were all full before and after Mass. It was not all older people in the church either. About half were young, and in their 20′s – 40′s. It was encouraging.

I defy anyone to find this kind of devout love for God and worship of Jesus Christ in the “Reformation” countries in northern Europe where most have lost their faith. Italy may have it’s own set of problems, but permeating society there is still a widespread devout faith, one that I am proud to join and encourage.

The homily was in Italian, so I didn’t understand it. But this Franciscan priest was passionate, enthusiastic and from what I observed he was a strong preacher with a love of God and a desire to light the people on fire for the truth.

To see the map, pictures and videos, click on the image below.

This place reminds me of our year of studying with Dr. Francis Schaeffer in Switzerland. Beautiful country, mountains, chalets, country churches and kindly people. See the run HERE

Janet and I are driving our rental car (and running) around Poland in anticipation of our group arriving tomorrow. Today we had Mass of the Exultation of the Cross with the bishop of Czestochowa in front of the Icon of the Black Madonna which they say was painted by St. Luke on a table in Nazareth made by Jesus. JP II visited here four times when pope.

To learn more click HERE

We pick up our group tomorrow and have Mass at St. Stanislaw Koska where Polish hero and martyr Fr. Jerzy Popieluszko is buried. He was the hero of Solidarity and was beatified in June 2010.

Starting tomorrow I will be uploading daily videos of our pilgrimage on my blog.

Visited Sanctuary of Divine Mercy, Krakow Poland. Prayed at St. Faustina’s bones, visited her cell, prayed the Divine Mercy.

Landed in Warsaw last night. Charted my course and took off running first thing in the morning on Monday. I wanted to see Jewish and Catholic sites along with Polish history. Will do more later this week.

Check out my running trip today “Running thru Catholic and Free Warsaw Poland

(Also Janet and my 5 mile walk thru the heart of Krakow on Tuesday HERE. We have a map, videos and lots of pictures).

I remembering smuggling Bibles, money and medicine for Christians into Poland thru E. Germany in 1985. It was very tense in those days and very beautiful today – 25 years later.

One of the things I love about traveling around giving talks at parishes and conferences is meeting old friends. Mark Shea, fellow convert, blogger, speaker and all around fun guy, was free for lunch while I’m here giving talks at Holy Family Parish in Kirkland Washington outside Seattle.

Mark and I went to a great seafood restaurant on the water’s edge on Puget Sound. We were able to catch up on news of our families and ministries and what we’re writing. We also recalled fun memories of working together on the scripts for my Footprints of God DVDs. We then walked and talked along the shore with the sea breeze and the sound of ship horns and seagulls. Nice time for sure. Sad to say good-bye. Keep up the good work Mark!

Now on the give my final talk at Holy Family parish with Fr. Nagel and the delightful Bob and Pam Gunderson who have befriended me and organized this well-attended and very enthusiastic parish mission.

My talk tonight is about fish! The title is ” Swimming Upstream: Living the Christian Life in a Neo-pagan World”. I begin by discussing the life of salmon.

To see my run thru deep forests and an old seminary click HERE

Frs. Nagle and Northrop who sponsored my talks in Kirkland. What great guys!!

Great Fullness of the Truth Conference here in San Antonio Texas. Love speaking here with these great folks. Took a run this morning thru the city and visited the Alamo, originally a Franciscan Mission Church. You can see the map, videos and pictures of my run HERE

Pictures from conference:

Check out my 3-Hour Run Around London – lots of video and pictures! HERE

Check out my running trip in Cardiff Wales with lots of people and animals. See it HERE

Check out my running trip through medieval, quaint Lancaster England. Nice Catholic surprise. See it HERE

Janet and I just arrived back in London after six days of touring England, Scotland and Wales. Many blessings!

We arrived back to a relatively quiet London but police are walking in pairs everywhere. I think they are concerned since it is Friday night.

Tomorrow is our 1st Apologetics Conference in London at Westminster Cathedral – the heart of the Catholic Church in Britain.

We are almost sold out. I will give four talks tomorrow with lots of Q & A. Pray for us!

Yesterday Mass in Oxford England and met fellow Ignatius Press author Fr. John Saward at his parish – St. Gregory and St. Augustine.

Today I ran through the Oxford England of C. S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.

Janet and I visited Oxford over 25 years ago as Protestants. Wonderful to visit again as Catholics.

CS Lewis played an impotent part in my Christian life and also in my conversion to the Catholic faith.

To see my run thru Oxford click 2011-08-07 Oxford, CS Lewis & Tolkien

Below: Me at Magdalen College where C. S. Lewis taught; the pub where the Inklings met; Tolkien and Lewis.

Having a great time with on-fire Catholics at the Walsingham Marian Shrine in England.

This shrine started in 1061 and was visited by most of the English kings until it was destroyed by King Henry VIII.

Imagine – Catholics have been taking pilgrimages in the thousands for 1,000 years! More than three times older than the United States.

These are hungry Catholics starved for the truth. Anglicans and other Protestants are converting en masse. A great joy to proclaim the Catholic faith here.

Little time to write now due to poor Internet.

Below are a few pictures.

To see my runs thru the quaint and beautiful countryside to the shrine and Priory visit the two links directly below.

Run thru Walsingham Shrine

Run Thru Destroyed Priory

Steve Ray coming to the United Kingdom in August. First a week at Walsingham’s New Dawn Conference and then at Westminster Cathedral. Join us if you can.

The line into St. Peter’s to see the new Tomb of JPII wraps around St. Peter’s Square twice! Yikes!

It’s always nice to walk into the Ancora Bookstore at the Vatican and find your book for sale there. It is humbling and gratifying.

Just signed a contract with Ignatius Press for my manuscript on Genesis. Another two books also in the pipeline. Blessed be God forever.

It was beautiful weather and a great day! Everyone was very happy and joyful even though 1.5 million crowded around St. Peters. Hope you enjoy the video and our pilgrims’ comments and below, my run through the event trying to get as close as I could.

My Run to the Beatification

Running thru churches and history of Rome. Click here for map, geo-tagged pictures and videos ` Running thru Rome

St. Ignatius Loyola with his foot on Martin Luther’s head.

Crossing the Tiber is the title of my book so I decided to Cross the Tiber literally again today in Rome. I also saw the bigger-than-life Stations of the Cross at the Vatican. Hope you enjoy!