A Medjugorje Pilgrimage

This year my mother, Jane, celebrated her 80th birthday – a great reason for her 11 children to come together and have a surprise party.  The party was easy to organise, the surprise a bit more difficult to ensure but the idea of a gift for the woman who knows what she likes and has everything she needs was more of a conundrum.  I remembered a converstion we had had a few years back about her wish to go on pilgrimage to one of the places where Our Lady has appeared.   I contacted everyone and suggested we all contributed to fund the pilgrimage of her choice.  I had promised my siblings that I would be her pilgrimage buddy.   Her choice was Medjugorje. 

I have to admit I was hoping for Fatima and have always been a bit resistant to stories I had heard of Mejugorje but when my mother decides…….!  When I looked it up on the internet and read a bit I became even more anxious but thought “I am doing this for my mother” and I will just surrender myself to the experience.  I made a conscious decision to not read a lot about it in advance and simply concentrate on the idea of being on pilgrimage.  My youngest sister, Jane, and my youngest daughter, Peg, expressed an interest in joining in and so we were four enthusiastic pilgrims.  I contacted Walsh Tours and signed us up to fly out of Edinburgh on the 15th of September for a week. 

They say Our Lady calls us to her and from the moment we arrived in Medjugorje one is overwhelmed by the number responding to her call.  The Walsh Tours are run well with delightful and faith filled young women supporting us throughout our time there.  We walked up hills, fasted, travelled to various churches, heard remarkable people speak, visited the Visionaries, and said countless rosaries, Stations of the Cross, went to Mass and Confession, participated in Healing Services, Exposition with thousands of people from what seemed all corners of the earth.  We prayed and prayed and prayed along with everyone else.  There is something extraordinary about praying amidst so many.  And even more amazing was the number of local people who not only took care of us, supplied all our needs and served us with such joy but attended the evening services held in Croatian.  The wonderful piety of the local people was inspiring. 

My daughter, though respectful, began the trip a bit distant but by the end of the week I was struck by her new found reverence and peace.  My sister, always fun and energetic, was so generous.  And best of all was to share this amazing experience with my mother.  The presence of Our Lady as the “Mother who loves me” resonated in such a special way as I prayed together with my mother and my daughter.  What made me anxious before I went gave me tremendous peace once I was there and stays with me still.