A Pilgrimage to Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina

On Monday, May 18 twenty four people joined me on a pilgrimage to a place where Mary our Heavenly Mother appeared to 6 young people on June 24, 1981. We gathered at the airport after checking in and went to a conference room where we all met and celebrated Mass together. that was the beginning of our journey. Mary calls us to this place in order to bring us closer to her son, Jesus; to love Him more, and to put Him first in our lives. Everything should be about Jesus.

We landed in Chicago, had a little layover, then headed to Frankfurt, Germany. After flying for about 9 hours we landed and then boarded a Croatia Airline to fly us to Split, Croatia. From there we were met by our wonderful guide, Jelcko and we drove 2 hours to Medjugorje. It was nearly 6 pm when we arrived at our pension and were told to put our luggage in our rooms, wash up and come right down for dinner. We sat in a large dining room with 6 tables, we only filled four of them and we were served our dinner by the host family. Soup was always the first course, it was a delicious broth with bits of cauliflower and small dumplings, then family style a big platter was placed in the center of the table and on the platter were 6 pork cutlets, very tender and yummy, polenta, gnoocchi, green garden salad and always lots of bread. they had wine, water, and a seltzer kind of water always available on the table.

I could take pages to write everything that I saw and that we did. It was really a highlight of my life. I felt so blessed to make this trip to a place where Mary called me to go. I continue to relive moments and hours of that journey even now, 4 days being home. It has renewed my faith, my prayer life, my love and dedication to our Lord and also to his mother, my Heavenly mother. They have pictures of her (well, everywhere) but one that I particularly loved had a saying and it says: "If you knew how much I loved you, you would cry of joy!" That really touched my heart, because really isn't that how all of us mothers feel towards our children?

So I will post a few pictures here to give you a glimpse of my faith journey in this place. We went to daily Mass and received the Eucharist, we prayed the rosary, we prayed the stations of the cross, we had quiet time to reflect, and we spent time in the adoration chapel. We climbed Apparition Hill which is the place where Mary first appeared, on the climb up we prayed the Joyful Mystery of the Rosary. Many from our group climbed Cross Mountain, because of my knees I did not climb that mountain.