Newsletter
Our
Lady, Star of the Sea.
Tobermory.
Isle
of Mull
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.
Peg, Jane and
Jane at Edinburgh
Airport preparing to leave for
Medjugorje
My mother,
myself and my sister
at the Oasis of Peace
The Grotto at
the Church of
the Sacred Heart in Studencia
with my daughter Peg and
sister Jane
On reaching
the top of Apparition
Hill
On getting
back down Apparition
Hill!
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