Champaign-Urbana Deaf Catholic Ministry

Day 10 - Saturday - Finally Home!

Today we started the last leg of our journey with a fabulous breakfast buffet at the hotel.  There was cereal, yogurt, scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, salami, croissants, coffee, 5 kinds of juice, all sorts of food.  It was very good!  We headed for the airport shuttle to head to the airport.  The other group left earlier than we did with Steve, we left about 8:15 am and had to leave about 3 of our group behind because the shuttle was full with other hotel guests.  Once everyone had reassembled back at the airport, we headed for check-in, tagged our carry-on baggage with "approved carry-on tags", had our passports checked at the check-in desk, and got our boarding passes.  We then headed up through border control to get our passports stamped for exit.  After that, we went through customs where we went through the "nothing to declare" line but did have to show our passports again.  We then proceeded to our gate (a little bit of a walk, but not bad) and had to go through X-ray screening.  Once we got through THAT, we then had to show our passport again for ID before going to the gate.  We boarded the plane with 30 minutes to spare!  One member of our group commented that we think there is a lot of security at our airports here in the US, but there are actually a lot more checks of passports and ID documents at the European airports than at the US airports.  She may be right.

Our flight from Frankfurt to Detroit took off with no problem - most of us were clustered around the last 2 rows of the plane.  It was nice to be together to have a chance to talk as needed.  We were served dinner of pasta or chicken early on in the flight.  The pasta wasn't too bad, Mom had the chicken which had a rice risotto with it.  Dessert was a WONDERFUL apple cake. They then had everyone close the window covers so the cabin was dark so we could sleep on the way.  (We left Frankfurt about 12:45 pm Frankfurt time and were to land in Detroit about 1:45 pm Detroit time - so we were following the sun the entire way!)  Most of us napped and dozed on the way.  Towards the end of the flight we were served another meal of cheese pizza and chocolate ice cream.  One person in our group ate the chocolate ice cream first because she didn't want it to melt - then didn't have room for the pizza because she was full!

Once in Detroit, we then had to go through customs.  This is a process that takes several steps.  First, your passport is stamped for entry into the US.  Then, you have to wait for your luggage to come in on the baggage claim area.  One of the border patrol "Beagle Brigade" beagles was sniffing luggage during this time to make sure nobody was bringing in contraband.  It took a long time for the luggage to get in.  Once we had our luggage, we then were herded (a very apt term - we began as a bit of crowd and eventually formed about 3 lines) towards customs.  Father Mike commented that he finally realized how cattle feel when they are being herded towards the chutes!  We then went through customs and had forms that answered various questions, including what we had bought.  We didn't have to give specifics, just that we had bought souvenirs and religious items.  At this point, we said goodbye to Susan and Monica, who were flying on to Phoenix Arizona.  We hope they made their flight!  One member of our group was picked for random searching of her luggage (which has happened to her before), the rest of us continued on and dropped off our luggage at an area for them to put the luggage back on the correct flight to Chicago.  All of this took about 45 minutes, it's a long process!  We then headed up to the gate and pit stops.  Once at the gate, we noticed a restaurant close by so went there for dinner.  Several of us had chicken & rice soup (very good), Mike & Chris had kabobs and Patty had nachos.  Her nachos were very good and very fresh!

Our flight to Detroit took off about on time and was pretty bumpy at times.  The flight attendants were not able to serve drinks or anything both because of the short length of the flight and the turbulence.  Mom and I were separated in this flight- she was in row 8, I was in row 23 with Father Mike.  Mom had a chance to visit with a couple with a 6-month old baby.  It was cute!  I had a chance to visit with Father Mike and we had a nice chat while flying to Chicago.  Once in Chicago, we all headed to baggage claim to get our luggage.  We had a chance to meet Wilma's son, daughter-in-law and nephew (who was adopted from Russia!).  Very cute!  We all said goodbye and went our separate ways.

Mom and I were lucky enough to catch an earlier bus than planned to Champaign and arrived home in Champaign about 9:30 pm.  This was 4:30 am Sunday Frankfurt time, so we had spent a lot of time traveling!  We stopped for an ice cream cone then headed home to bed! 

This was a wonderful trip for both of us and we were blessed to be able to share it with a great group of people.  I will be posting pictures over the next week or so and adding them to some of the day's blog posts.  Thanks very  much for everyone's prayers during the trip - they definitely helped!

Day 9 (Friday) - Journey Home

We started Friday by meeting in a small chapel near St. James Church for Mass with another English-speaking group.  There were three priests concelebrating Mass:  Fr. Mike, a Franciscan priest, and a priest from India.  After Communion, the priest from India sang a song in Indian to the Blessed Mother.  The English words were something like "You are our mother, we are your children" and sounded very
nice.  One of the women in the other English-speaking group told us that she was inspired by our group because she had a grandson who is Deaf.  We received remarks like this all week, it's really rather humbling to realize that you are representing the Deaf to a large part of the world!

After Mass, a man who was singing at Mass asked a small group of us to wait and then came back with pictures of Our Lady and a miracle from another local village where the statue of Our Lady smiled!  Once I go through my souvenirs and notes, I will post more about this if I can.

We then went back to the house and had a quick breakfast of cereal, bread, juice, coffee and tea.  Our bus came at 9 am and had another group that had come to Medjugorje with us the Friday before.  We then had to wait because a woman from the group had forgotten her coat at their house.  Steve, our tour director, called their guide (her name in Croatian means Snow White, so we call her Snow White instead of her Croatian name!) and she brought the coat by.  While we were waiting, we took the opportunity to pray the Rosary together for a safe trip home.

The road back to Split is very beautiful.  Bosnia and Croatia have a lot of mountains and rocky places and it is surprising to find villages sometimes.  Homes used to be made of stone, but now are made from wood and concrete.  Stone houses are too expensive for people now.  Slavenka shared a custom on Bosnian/Croatian weddings.  When you marry a Croatian man, you don't just marry the man, you marry the entire family.  You go live with your in-laws for one year before you are able to save enough money to move into your own home.  The bride and groom's family help them buy all the things that they need for their house.  Before they get married, the bride goes into the groom's home and cooks with the groom's mother to learn how their family cooks.  One groom's mother asked the bride if she liked the food the mother made.  The bride said "Yes", and the groom's mother said, "Good, this is what you will be eating for the rest of your life!"  The wedding reception is on Saturday and lasts a good part of the night and includes up to 7 courses of food.  Guests can number from 300-400 people and they all bring cash as the wedding present.  The amount of cash you bring depends upon your relationship to the couple.  Friends bring about $100, family can give up to $500 to $600.  Part of this helps to finance the cost of the wedding reception, which can cost perhaps $40-50 per person.  The rest goes to help the couple save for the home.  Slavenka told us that Vicka's wedding (she is a visionary) a couple years ago was the "best wedding ever" with over 1,300 people at the reception!  People eat, drink, but never completely get drunk.  The traditional last course, which can come at perhaps 4-5 am, is a very sour soup that helps people get sober!  Slavenka isn't sure what's in it or how to make it, but it's a traditional recipe that is extremely sour!  Slavenka was going to be going to a wedding party on Saturday nigt, so that got her started on the information.  It's interesting to learn how different cultures handle weddings.  We also saw a couple in the church plaza on Thursday before our group picture.  Slavenka said they were taking wedding pictures - the actual wedding would be on Saturday. 

We stopped at a restaurant along the Adriatic coast for lunch on the way.  It was right by the road and right by the sea.  After lunch, several people took the steps under the road to the shore to look at the
sea and dip their feet in the Adriatic.  Mom and I stayed up top.  The coastline is beautiful and it was such a gorgeous day.  Slavenka said there are 1,085 islands in the Adriatic Sea between Italy and Croatia and it is a 10-hour ride by ferry from Italy to Croatia.  We could see a very large island from where we had lunch. 

We arrived in Split, checked in, and had about 1/2 hour to wait before we boarded our plane for Frankfurt.  We had to wait about a half hour on the tarmac because of heavy plane traffic over Frankfurt.  Once in the air, we were served a ham sandwich and drinks and then had a chance to nap or read.  We arrived in Frankfurt about 5 pm and then had to wait about 1/2 hour for our luggage to arrive in the baggage claim.  We had hoped to have time to explore the Old City but we arrived to late to do that.  We all took a bus to our hotel (NH, or New Hotel) close by the airport.  Our room was beautiful and very nice.  A couple notes about European hotels:  Room 329 (ours) was on the 2nd floor, your room key needs to be kept in a little receptacle to the left of the door to keep the electricity on, and Germans don't use top sheets on their beds.  We simply had a duvet cover.  Things were a little different!

We all met downstairs in the restaurant for dinner and conversation and remembering our trips.  I shared a hamburger and fries (the hamburger was almost 1 lb!) with Sue, Mom had onion soup with parmesan cheese.  It was all very good.  Jose, one of the members of the other group, told us that he was with a group that left their house at 3 am one day this past week and hiked up Cross Moutain IN THE DARK so they arrived at the top of the mountain at 5 am.  They did this because the local villagers say that Our Lady is always there at 5 am.  He shared that he definitely felt her presence there.  He also shared that he hiked up Cross Mountain a total of 4 times this past week!  I had difficulty getting up once so I definitely had some respect for him!  He had some gorgeous pictures that he shared with us.

Once dinner was over, we all headed up to our rooms for a rest - tomorrow we finish our journey home!

Day 8 (Thursday)

Yes, I'm a couple days late posting this.  Thursday was our last day in Medjugorje.  We woke up as usual and went to 10 am Mass.  They made a special announcement at the end of Mass that it was our last day there at the general English Mass and how they had appreciated our presence there that week.  It was really a very nice gesture on their part to recognize us.

After Mass, we gathered in front of the church for a group picture.  Dani, our photographer, and Slavenka announced that, together, they had been very inspired by our group and wanted to give us a "small gift".  The gift was a copy of the picture that Dani took (usually 5 Euros, or $7.50) and a copy of a DVD that had the Deaf Mass, a talk by Father Svec, Marijana's talk on Wednesday, and Marijana's most recent vision on October 2nd.  The DVD usually sells for 20 Euros, or $30, so with our group of 12 people, this was the equivalent of a $350 gift from Dani and Slavenka.  It was very, very generous of them.

After we took the picture, most of us walked through the fields to the Blue Cross.  Janis and Chris took a taxi.  When the apparitions first started happening, the country was under Communist rule and they did not believe in the apparitions.  They would occupy Apparition Hill to try to prevent the visionaries from going to see the visions.  So, Ivan (one of the visionaries) had a friend who made a cross.  The only paint that the friend had was blue, so the cross became blue.  Of course, Blue is the color of Our Lady so it works well.  When Apparition Hill was occupied by the Communists, the visionaries would meet in secret at the Blue Cross each night.  Later, Ivan started a prayer group that met at the Blue Cross.  So many people would come, they wouldn't have room to meet so men from the Ciencolo (the community we visited on Sunday) made another Blue Cross and stone benches, and placed that cross and benches close by.  Ivan's group therefore had a place to sit - and continues to meet 26 years after it was first founded.  Some members have, of course, moved on but others have stayed the entire time.  When Ivan lives in Boston, he joins a prayer group there started by a priest.

We all walked up a steep (paved) hill then climbed just a little bit of mountain to Blue Cross.  Everyone helped Janis do her first mountain climbing!  We all said the Rosary together at the base of the Blue Cross, and it was just a very nice moment.  Once we had some private prayer time, we all assembled at the base of the hill again and then walked to the Oasis of Peace.  This is a religious community run by the Passionist Fathers.  As you enter the community, there is a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary that is sheltered inside a little hut.  They also have statues of St. Joseph and St. Michael the Archangel.  Marijana used to occasionally have visions at the Oasis of Peace; however, visions and Masses have been forbidden by the Bishop at the Oasis of Peace.  It is a little startling to go into their chapel and see the tabernacle open and bare.  Since the chapel belongs to the Passionists, the crucifix they have is very life-like and very moving.  After private prayer time in the chapel, we walked back through the fields through a little bit different route to head back to the house for lunch.

After lunch (soup, then chicken and tomato stew) we had a very special dessert - a spectacular cake that our hostess had baked.  It was brought out with a flaming candle that was shooting off fireworks!  It was very special.  I hope to get a picture from someone else - my camera was up in my room!  The cake was a very light sponge cake with cream filling with fresh fruit between the layers. Yum!

After dessert, Father Mike, Sue, Susan, Monica and Rowland took a taxi and hiked up Cross Mountain again.  The rest of us supported them by saying prayers for a safe trip!  After Eucharistic Adoration at 7 pm, we met at Viktor's at 8:30 pm for our "last supper" together.  It was so nice to have everyone there.  Fr. Mike was interviewed by an Irishwoman who writes for the Medjugorje Herald, an Irish magazine that talks about Medjugorje and the groups that go there.  She wants to write a story about our group!  How exciting!  At the end of our meal, Fr. Mike asked everyone to share their favorite moment or memory.  Several people talked about how they were just overwhelmed by the experience of being in Medjugorje.  Others talked about how their prayer lives had changed and how they had learned how to pray differently in Medjugorje.  Father Mike shared a very powerful experience that he had up on Cross Mountain, then reminded us that after the Transfiguration, Peter wanted to stay up on the mountaintop because it was so wonderful to be there with Jesus.  But, Jesus said they had to go down the mountain and out to the world.  In the same way, we have to do the same thing.  We have to come "down from the mountain" of our Medjugorje experience and take the message of Medjugorje back to our communities. 

Once we finished sharing time, we prayed the Rosary together again and then joined hands to bless everyone together for a good trip tomorrow.  Several people then went back to the Rising Christ statue and Father Slavko's grave for the last time.  I followed after a little bit and was struck by how clear the sky was - you could see every star in the heavens and it looked like you could reach up and touch them. 

Tomorrow we start our journey home, but none of us will ever completely leave Medjugorje!

Day 7 (Wednesday)

Today was another special day.  We had breakfast VERY early, at 7 am, and headed out at 7:45 am to Mirjana's house (her name is pronounced Maryanna).  She is one of the visionaries.  As we walked through the fields, we had two escorts- a black and white dog and a black lab mix dog playing as we went along.  We were very lucky when we arrived at Mirjana's house - we were allowed into her courtyard and had special seats so that we could see the interpreter as she talked.  What a privilege!  She talked about how it is special to know Our Lady and really spend time with her.  She also reminded us of the five things Our Lady told us to do:  Mass on Sundays, daily Rosary, monthly confessions, Bible reading daily and fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays.  The best fast is bread and water (European bread is much more filling than American bread!) but it could also include a fast from TV, a fast from coffee or something else.  After she finished speaking, she came down and shook hands with several of us, including me & Mom!  It was a very special encounter.

After meeting Mirjana, we headed to Mass.  After Mass, we had a talk by another priest here.  He had two special stories to share with us.  The first story was the prodigal son from the Bible.  He asked us who had it worst in the story:  the father, the older son or the younger (prodigal) son?  There were a variety of responses, then he said, you know, I think the character that had it the worst was that fatted calf!  The second story he shared was about a particular couple.  Another man moved into the house next to them.  One day, the woman noticed the man had hung his laundry out to dry and it looked dirty.  She commented to her husband that it was too bad the man didnt know how to do laundry.  Five days later, the same thing happened.  Five days after that, she looked out her window and the man was again hanging out laundry, but this time it looked very clean.  She remarked to her husband that it looked like the man had learned how to do laundry.  Her husband replied, 'I don't know about the man's ability to do laundry, but I cleaned our windows!'  The meaning is before we criticize, we first have to look at ourselves.  It's a good lesson sometimes for us to think about.

After the talk, we had lunch back at the house.  Today we had a wonderful broccoli soup, then fish with french fries and eggplant.  Dessert was an apple if you wanted it.  The fish was good.  Afterwards, we had free time then we had a chance to go to confession with Father Mike.  After confessions were done, several of us gathered at the Irish Center for dinner.  Mom and I shared some spaghetti with meat sauce.  It was quite good.  We then went back to the house for our nightly Rosary, then a lot of us went to Eucharistic Adoration.  The church was jam packed, but it was wonderful to experience such a community of love for Our Lord.  Outside it is very cold, but the church was very warm! 

Tomorrow we will go see the Blue Cross at the bottom of Apparition Hill and get a group picture taken, then Friday we start our journey home.  It has been a very unique experience here! 

Day 6 (Tuesday)

Wow - today was a very powerful day!  After breakfast, we headed on a bus to Cross Mountain.  For those in America, when we talk about going up Cross Mountain, we are not talking about going up a mountain path that's nicely paved.  It is rocky, craggy, steep in some places, and not always fun!  Janis and Chris
stayed at the bottom.  A few others were a little uncertain about heading up, but we all headed up together.  We stopped for stations of the cross as we went up, and stopping at the stations is a good way to get your breath back!  We all helped each other over the rough parts, lending arms and hands when needed.  All in all, it takes 2 HOURS to walk up Cross Mountain.  It is so worth it at the top, there is a huge cement cross that was built in 1934 by the local villagers in honor of the 1900th anniversary of Christ's death.  The view is incredible, you see the entire valley below.  The song 'How Great Thou Art' kept running through my head as I looked over this vast valley.  God is so good, he helped us all get up there.  We did have a group picture taken in front of the cross, I will add it to this post when I get home.

On the way down, we again helped each other.  It took us an hour to walk our way down.  Sometimes it didn't feel like we were moving very much, so we began to count down the stations as we passed them on the way down.  Once we were down at the bottom of the mountain, we had a short break for drinks and bathroom before we got back on the bus again to go to Mother's Village.  This is a village founded by Fr. Slavko using $50,000 donated from a German in seed money back in 1983 when so many children were orphaned by the war in Yugoslavia.  There are a number of homes here, each with about 8-9 children and 2 adults.  Each home is different because homes are different in the villages.  There is a daycare where local villagers also send their children.  Children from the orphanage play with the village children so there is socialization.  They also make arts and crafts that are sold in the gift shop at the village.  We were able to go into one of the homes and met 2 of the little boys that live there.  One was 7, the other was 5 or 6.  The youngest thought Chris Roeback was Santa Claus, and asked him how he came down the chimney when it wasn't Christmas yet!  He also asked for a toy cell phone for Christmas.  Slavanka was explaining that we are Deaf and that is why Sue was Signing with her hands.  The boy asked why we couldn't hear and we said because God made us special!

After Mother's Village we came back to the house for dinner of mushroom soup, veal and spaghetti with meat sauce.  Dessert was a very nice blueberry crumb cake.  We had some time to take naps, go out or whatever, and then met at 8:30 to say the Rosary together.  Once we finished the Rosary, some of us went to the Irish Center for a beer or ice cream.  It was a very nice way to end the evening, but all of us are tired!  Tomorrow we meet Mirjana (one of the visionaries) before Mass, then a talk by a local priest after Mass. 

It was a sunny day but quite cold - I'm glad we brought jackets and sweaters!  Tomorrow is also supposed to be quite cold.  Thank you for praying for us! 

Day 5 (Monday)

It rained off and on today, but we didn't really care because today was a RED LETTER DAY!  Father Mike Depcik was the principal celebrant at mass today - and other members of our Deaf group participated in Mass, too!  Chris Roeback was the lector, Janis did the psalms, Minette, Wilma, Susan and one of the hearing members of our group did the prayers of the faithful.  What a powerful Mass!  During his homily, Father Mike shard how the story of Medjugorje inspired him to not only continue in his Catholic faith, but to become a priest!  After Mass, there were a lot of people around Father Mike asking for a blessing from him and telling him how much they appreciated what we did.  One woman told Sue, our interpreter, that she had a Deaf daughter and had a religious medal that Father Mike blessed - now she can take that back to her daughter and tell her a Deaf priest blessed it!  Another person told Sue that today's Mass would be the talk of Medjugorje for the next 10 years!  We really had an impact on things!

 

After Mass, we went to a talk by Father Svec, one of the Franciscan priests here.  He talked about how there are sacraments that come from God, and 'sacraments' that come from the Evil One (the Devil).  These can include things like overwork, addictions, etc.  Every day, we have to decide which 'sacraments' we want to choose.  After the talk, we went over to the Rising Christ and did stations of the cross around it.  We had exactly 14 people in our group, so each of us took a turn leading one of the stations.  It was quite a powerful thing to do.  Afterwards, we had a chance to pray in front of the statue.

After lunch, we had some free time to do shopping or whatever we wanted to do.  We met for our sharing time at 8 in a local restaurant.  It was pouring rain, so we couldn't do it outside!  It was a good day overall.  At lunchtime, we learned that we will have the opportunity to hear Mirjana, one of the visionaries, on Wednesday morning!  She will meet with the English speaking pilgrims early that morning.  We are excited about that! 

Day 4 (Sunday)

We started our day with breakfast at 8:30 (doughnuts, bread, jam, coffee, juice) and then had a little bit of free time before heading to the English Mass at noon.  We had a thunderstorm overnight and it was still raining when we went to Mass, so everyone had their rain gear on!  Fortunately we were able to get good seats in the choir section for Mass.  The presiding priest today was from the UK and shared how we must trust God, much like Mary did at each point of her life.

After Mass it was back to the house for a wonderful lunch of tomato salad (Mom ate my share!), chicken and a wonderful risotto with vegetables in it.  Dessert was oranges.  After lunch, we went to a special community here started by Sister Elvira that helps boys and men who are suffering from various addictions recover from them.  The name of the Community is the Cenacolo community. Their website is here: http://www.comunitacenacolo.it/index.asp?idlingua=2  Two of the residents shared their experiences.  Their daily routine is somewhat like this:  up at 6:00, pray the rosary, read the gospel and then a quick breakfast.  Work starts at 8 and goes through noon.  Everything in their community is made by themselves, from the benches and beds they use to the food and things they sell (they have wonderful icons).  After lunch they pray the rosary again then have a short amount of free time.  Free time at their community is different from ours: they do not have TV, radio, newspaper, computers or other games.  Free time is therefore spent talking with each other and learning about each other.  Think about that for a minute:  no TV, computers, games, newspapers, radio!  They do not worry about what is happening in the world, they focus on what is happening within their community.  Sometimes I think we can learn from that.  One of the gentlemen said if he doesn't feel like talking to anyone, he does laundry - by hand!  Work starts up again at 1:30 to about 6.  They also have metalworking shops and other things in the community and just recently had a major tour of Italy with a play they created and created props for.  One of the props was a large metal globe that opens up in 6 sections for different scenes of the play.  Each of the sections had to hold 15 people - so you can imagine the size of the globe!  We didn't see it while there but it must have been huge.  After dinner, they pray the rosary again for the third time.  This rosary is said for the intentions of the people who visit their communities.  After the rosary, they head to bed and then up again the next morning at 6.  They do welcome people of other faiths and have a Muslim and 2 Jews in their community here in Medjugorje - but those 3 people still must follow all the rules, which includes the Rosary three times daily.  It was really a very powerful witness. This community (worldwide) has about 4 people who have become priests, 30 women who have become nuns and about 10 men who are in formation to become priests.  Talk about a breeding ground for vocations!  After we finished and had a chance to ask questions, Father Mike said a blessing on them and us, then we went to their shop and did a little shopping.  I bought an icon like the one behind their altar.  I will do another post later about the icon and its symbolism - it is wonderful.

After we got back from Cenacolo we all prayed the Rosary together at the house and then were able to have dinner.  Mom and I joined a group of about 8 total at a restaurant near the house.  After dinner we went back to the house to share our experiences of the day.  A lot of people shared that the Cenacolo visit was a very powerful experience for them.  To end the day, we all went for gelato (ice cream) in honor of my birthday!  My mother was generous enough to pay for everyone to have some gelato.  The place we went had 10 different flavors, including apple, coconut, tiramisu, berry, creme caramel, chocolate, and others.  It was hard for some people to decide what to have!  It was a great end to a wonderful day. 

Tomorrow will be a beautiful day- Father Mike will be the principal celebrant at Mass and the Deaf will be involved in the Mass!  Christopher Roeback will be the lector, four of us will present prayers of the faithful, and four of us will be collecting the offertory.  It will be a wonderful way for us to witness to the power of God in our lives! 

Thanks to everyone for the prayers we have had so far - we definitely feel them! 

Medjugorje Pilgrimage - Days 1 and 2 (and 3)

Well - it has certainly been a journey to get here!  Father Mike Depcik's blog inspired me to think about going to Medjugorje - and now I have brought my mother to this beautiful place!

Our group of 12 started from Chicago, Arizona and Oregon on October 8th.  The group from Chicago (or at least most of us!) flew from Chicago to Detroit, then Detroit to Frankfurt (loooong 8.5 hour flight!).  We landed in Frankfurt, and had about 3.5 hours before our plane took off for Split, Croatia.  We landed about 7:30 am Frankfurt time, which was 11:30 pm Chicago time!  Mom and I found a McDonald's cafe that had coffee and teat - but not before we had sticker shock at another sit-down restaurant.  You could have coffee, a croissant, jam and butter for the princely sum of 11 Euros - or 22 US!  After Mom recovered from her heart attack, we found the Micky D's.  While waiting for our flight to Split, we discovered that 5 people in our group have birthdays this week.  Father Mike finds it very interesting that Our Lady called these people to come during their birthday! 

On our flight from Frankfurt to Split, they served a sort of ham/bologna sandwich with lettuce for lunch.  Once in Split, we went through Customs and then headed to our bus to go to Medjugorje.  This was now October 9th (Day 2).  We had about a 2.5 hour bus ride to Medjugorje.  On the way, we encountered a funeral procession on the road - with just about the whole village walking to the cemetery.  Our guide said that it is a local custom that everyone goes to the cemetery in the funeral procession, even if you dont know the person who died.  If you see someone you know in the procession, then of course you join in - and since everyone knows everyone in the village, there will pretty much be a full house!

Once in Medjugorje, we had a little bit of time before the Croatian Mass (the big community Mass) at 6 pm so Mom and I did a little exploring.  The Mass was very nice.  Afterwards, we headed back to our rooming house (sort of a bed and breakfast) and had a wonderful supper with tomato and rice soup, salad, fish with green beans and potatoes and bananas for dessert.  It was a wonderful ending to a perfect day. 

This morning (Day 3) we had breakfast at 8:30 then headed over to St James church for English Mass at 10.  We sat where the choir usually sits so we could see our interpreter well.  (Our interpreter is AWESOME!)  The priest was from Dublin Ireland and gave a very inspiring homily.  After Mass, our guide gave us more information about Medjugorje and we saw the statue of the Rising Christ towards the back of St James Church.  The statue actually oozes from its knee from time to time - and analysis of what oozes out has shown that there are actualy human cells there!  What a wonderful miracle!  We then had a very nice lunch of chicken noodle soup, salad, pork, mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts and coconut cake with what seemed like zabaglone inside.  What a wonderful lunch!  It turned out we needed our strength for what lie ahead --

This afternoon we climbed Apparition Hill, which is the site of the initial Apparitions of Medjugorje.  To arrive there, you walk through fields to a small village, head up a very steep paved road, then confront a very rocky hillside.  Our guide says it is very smooth now - I cant imagine what it was like before! Along the way, there are metal sculptures that show the various mysteries of the rosary, starting with the joyful mysteries.  We stopped at each one to pray a decade of the rosary before arriving at the top of the hill.  At the top, there is a statue of the Virgin Mary that required 40 men to carry her up the hill.  It was donated by a Korean couple in thanksgiving for the healing of their son from epileptic seizures and is quite beautiful.  This journey up the hill takes about 1.5 hours - the journey back can take some time too because you have to be careful not to loose your footing and fall on your face!  As we walked up and down, our guide invited us to gather 5 pebbles from the hill to help us remember the 5 lessons of Medjugorje:  Conversion of heart, Daily Eucharist, fasting, Rosary, and monthly confession. 

I bought a walking stick at a shop at the bottom of the hill (after I had come down - perhaps not the best timing) and hope to use it when we climb Cross Mountain.  Father Mike says Cross Mountain is even more rocky than Apparition Hill! 

We had dinner at the Irish Center - each of us ordered pizza and shared.  It was a nice dinner, and very reasonable.  Two of us had one pizza and two drinks for 11 dollars.  Not bad!  Afterwards, we gathered back at the Rising Christ for some sharing of the day and the saying of the "Medjugorje Rosary" - 7 Our Fathers, 7 Hail Marys and 7 Glory Bes, followed by the Creed.  This was giving to the visionaries by Our Lady.  Some people stayed at St james Church for Eucharistic Adoration at 9 am while others went back to the hotel to sleep. 

A busy day!  Tomorrow is Sunday and we are hoping to go up Cross Mountain.  However, it is supposed to rain and if that happens, it will be too dangerous to go up the mountain.  We will see what happens!  Please pray for us - and we are praying for all of you!  The Deaf group is in charge of Mass on Monday so we have organized who will be doing the readings, prayers of the faithful, and other things. 

I am posting entries from an Internet cafe at the moment so pictures may have to wait until we get home - but I do promise to post some as soon as I can!