In Pope John Paul II's first Christmas sermon, he shared his dream of making a pilgrimage to Israel, Jordan and the painful patchwork of land in between.
Any papal trip is a big news story.
But the best way to grasp the historic nature of this pope's journey into the spiritual minefield called the Holy Land is to see it as a global story built on generations of personal stories - some beautiful, some horrific. It's like an ancient mosaic that includes many shattered pieces, but the image is still there for all to see. Here is one of those stories. It's a story that even brought tears to the eyes of some journalists, when told by the chief rabbi of Israel. He told me he remembers seeing him walking to the synagogue on Shabbat, surrounded by children.