A place of peace and the spiritual
News
Fr Olek Stirrat recently returned from a life-giving pilgrimage to a backwater town in Bosnia and Herzegovina called Medjugorje. It was, he writes, an outstanding experience.
“Let them know that I am their Mother and love and delight in them very much.”
Fr Leon, who had a profound experience of Mary in Medjugorje, said that this is what she wants each one of us to know.
Medjugorje is where people themselves seem to bear witness to how God has worked and continues to work in history by being drawn to the poor and the simple. He seems to desire to be greeted by the pure and childlike.
But what is the Church’s stance on Medjugorje? In 1981, it is alleged that Mary appeared to six young children. Two years ago, and after 43 years of investigation, the Vatican gave the highest level of endorsement under their new guidelines with a nihil obstat (“nothing stands in the way”) for Medjugorje.
This approval allows official church-sponsored pilgrimages and values the site’s rich spiritual fruits. However, the Church does not officially declare the reported apparitions of the Virgin Mary to be supernatural. Nevertheless, it is truly a place of peace.
Medjugorje has also been described as the ‘confessional of the world’. I can certainly bear witness to this by spending hours hearing confessions from people right around the world. To be a conduit of divine grace and forgiveness was perhaps the most life-giving experience for me.
A child once asked a priest based in Medjugorje why there are so many rocks there? The priest responded by saying that when people come to Medjugorje, they leave all the stones on the heart there, to leave lighter and freer.
For the 34 of us pilgrims from South Australia, Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales, ranging from adolescents to a heroic 89-year-old, we each felt called by Mary to come carrying in our hearts our different prayers and intentions all of which were heard and answered through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
What I found inspiring was the generous response of the pilgrims themselves. To see them deepen their relationship with God and our Blessed Mother was a privilege.
Our days were filled with prayer, mountain hikes, spiritual conversations, tourist attractions and a delectable dip in a fountain spring.
The pilgrimage was seamlessly organised by Saintly Travels and marvellously led by Simon and Julie Ward, parishioners from the Payneham parish. I highly recommend everyone to go to Medjugorje to have a transforming experience of peace.
CAPTIONS:
UNITED: The group at their accommodation.
Left, the pilgrims at Apparition Hill.
LONG WALK: The pilgrims from South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland on Krizevac (Cross Mountain).
