Medjugorje 2017
 

In September 2017 a party of twenty four descended on the parish of St James in Medjugorje.

I had heard all sorts of stories about Medjugorje – spinning sun, messages in the sky etc etc., being the sceptic that I am off I went to Medjugorje with an open mind…I think!!

This is what happened:
It is a lovely village with the very large Church of St James. I was soon to realize that the Church being the hub of the village was always quite busy. Each day the English Mass was celebrated at 10:00am the Church was filled to the brim. Each day there was Adoration and Rosary and an international Mass which could be heard through headphones into your own language.

What a fantastic sight when in the evening dusk you walked around the side of the Church to see hundreds of people sitting in front of the Blessed Sacrament the same sight when the Rosary was being prayed. The queues for Confession was also a sight to behold just like when we were kids queuing up for Saturday Confessions.
We had talks which were both entertaining and informative. We visited the Cenacolo this is a house opened up some years ago by Sister Elvira (these houses are all over there is one in the Lake District) for young troubled people. While we were there two young men (late teens early twenties)  who had been on drugs but are now being guided to live without them,  gave moving testimonies about their lives on drugs and their journey of recovery and the work they are doing now.
Of course the two hills, the Apparition Hill where Our Lady appeared and the Hill with the Cross.  We climbed over the huge boulders praying the Rosary as we went up Apparition hill and prayed the Way of the Cross going up the more difficult of the two hills. Not everyone  climbed the Hill of the Cross  but I think those of us who did were glad that we did.

On evening around 11:00pm four of us went down to the statue of Our Lady then walked further on to the area where the candles were sold. As we approached we heard the Rosary being recited. Two young men, seventeen or eighteen were kneeling on the concrete before the large crucifix each taking turns to say each decade of the Rosary. We sat quietly and listened to them, when they finished they stood up shook hands and went off with each other, an inspirational sight to witness.
Well I didn’t see any spinning suns, messages in the sky but then I didn’t expect to but what I did get was something you can’t really put in words something not tangible something dare I say spiritual, there I’ve said it, and Hope.