A year ago: Medjugorje

March 25, 2011

Last night we left for Medjugorje, Bosnia & Herzegovina. (At midnight we stopped for a passport check at the Slovenian border.) And at the Bosnian border, I think they gave the guard beer and cereal... but that's a side note... Prof. Cassidy and his almost 6 year old son Johannes came with us. And the roads were really winding.

Markita and me in front of the Castle.

When we arrived at the Castle (which is not like an ancient castle-- it's very new and is built on the model of St. Teresa of Avila's Interior Castle of the Soul), Nancy and Patrick and the Ukranian doctors greeted us with cheers and applause. She is so joyful and charitable and loving-- it is beautiful how much joy she has!

Sheep in a vineyard!!!

After we got our rooms (I was in the large dormitory with 30 other women-- all Franciscan students), we went to the parish church (St. James) and saw the statue of the Risen Christ. There is a miraculous flow of water coming out of His knee and it's the consistency of human tears (and it's also about the height Mary would have been at as she embraced Him on the cross). We were told of this phenomenon, but you don't realize it until you touch it.

The Risen Christ statue

Then I got to sing for the Mass at St. James (Solemnity of the Annunciation) and then we had lunch. Then we went to Cennocole, a men's rehab for drug/substance addiction and heard 2 men give their testimonies of what this place has done for them.

Then we climbed Apparition Hill where Our Lady appears as we prayed the Glorious Mysteries on the way up. At the top, we had some good prayer time by a statue of Our Lady.

Statue of Our Lady outside the parish church

Then we walked back to the church for evening services. JoBob and I didn't end up going there, but went to the Bookshop, Luminous Mystery mosaics, Stations by the Risen Christ statue, and then dinner before we had a holy hour. Markita and I walked back in the dark together. We were going to walk through the field, but just as we were about the walk through I decided that I couldn't walk through a pitch dark field without any light. So we started to turn back, but then we ran into some other Franciscan students who had lights, so we walked through with them.


March 26, 2011


Today, we ate breakfast and then hurried off to hear the visionary Vitka speak. She was always smiling! She also talked about in order to blossom, we need to water our flower with prayers or it will wither and die.

Then we went to Mass and a talk by Fr. Svet and he talked about the need to be adventerous-- risky. On the way back to the castle, Markita and I stop by some shops. The vendors were really nice and gave us free prayer cards and a piece of candy.For lunch, the men from Cennocole made us pizza and spaghetti.

Then we climbed Cross Mountain-- a real mountain. It has the same Stations of the Cross that we have on main campus.

Then we rushed off to get to the Sunday Vigil Mass, which was backed and we stood most of the time. After the holy hour, Nancy and Patrick let us pile in to their van to get a ride back to the Castle.

St. James, the parish church

March 27, 2011


Today we had the time change and woke up very early for 6AM breakfast. While we ate, Patrick gave a beautiful testimony of how he went from money being his god and how sinful he was until his wife gave him the book of messages from Our Lady and he, and later his family, turned to the Lord.

We prayed morning prayer on the bus while we waited for people who forgot their passports. Then after stopping in Split, Croatia where we saw a Franciscan Church and Diocletian's former palace, we prayed a Rosary and told glory stories from Medjugorje, which was a great time to reflect on our experiences.

Markita and me next to the Adriatic Sea in Split, Croatia