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“Do not forget that you are passing like a flower in a field, which is visible from afar but disappears in a moment. Little children, leave a sign of goodness and love wherever you pass and God will bless you with an abundance of His blessing. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Our Lady of Medjugorje, January 25, 2007
Apart from visiting a few places in Canada and the U.S. this is the first time that I have ever really traveled abroad. So there were a lot of new adventures for me to experience.. One of them was to fly over the Atlantic Ocean. Another was to travel to Europe itself. And yet another was to visit a place where Our Blessed Mother is appearing. By the time we would reach Medjugorje our pilgrim group would have celebrated Mass on three occasions, prayed together all 20 Mysteries of the Rosary.. the Divine Mercy Chaplet, the Angelus as well as a lot of personal conversations with Jesus and Our Blessed Mother..
From Windsor to Toronto we travelled by bus stopping along the way a few times to pick up other fellow pilgrims. We began with eight pilgrims in Windsor and by the time we would reach Toronto all 52 pilgrims would be together. On the bus to Toronto a lady named Josie sat with me. We became friends within a few short moments sharing with each other the fruits of our conversion journeys up until now. Everyone on this pilgrimage became friends instantly! It was just wonderful to see faithful souls come together and get to know one another so quickly. Much like how our friendships transpire here on this forum. There were two Josie’s in our group. This Josie who I had the privilege to sit next to on the bus was the older one who would celebrate her birthday on the Friday we were to leave Medjugorje. The younger Josie we would meet up with in Toronto.
Once in Toronto, we teamed up with the other half of our pilgrim group also arriving in Toronto from various places around the country including New Brunswick and British Colombia. Our group was not all Canadian though. One pilgrim named Sarah, who works with Fr. Rookey had flown in from Chicago to accompany us on our pilgrimage. We celebrated our second Mass once all 52 pilgrims were together in the airport Chapel in Toronto. From Toronto to Vienna of course we travelled by plane. And again from Vienna to Sarajevo we travelled by plane. And finally from Sarajevo to Mostar where we stopped at Sts. Peter & Paul Parish to celebrate our third Mass since we left Windsor. Then from Mostar we travelled again by bus to Medjugorje and reached Nada’s, the home we would stay at just before dinner was served at 8:00pm..
We had left Windsor just before 10:00am EST Wednesday morning and reached Medjugorje nearing 8:00pm (Bosnian Time) Thursday night. In total we travelled 28 hours before arriving in Medjugorje. During this time I would pass a lot of flowers! Some I would simply say “thank you” to in passing, for having held a door open for me in an airport terminal or for serving me a coffee in a café along the way knowing that I would never see them again.. I always tried to say a little prayer for each person I encountered no matter how brief our meeting was.. Sometimes they knew little or no English yet always understood “thank you”.. I think it is the smiles that give it away! A smile is understood in every language that exists or has ever existed.. Some of these flowers I would get to know very well by the end of our pilgrimage. All of them would touch my heart at some depth in one way or another.
There would be 52 pilgrims in total! And our ages would range from early 20s to late 70s. And everyone was just wonderful to be travelling with! The younger ones were always looking out for the older ones in our group. We had a small group of young people who were just great the entire pilgrimage! They really went out of their way to help others and to look out for the rest of the group! They were more than willing to carry luggage or help our elderly up and down escalators.. At the airports we were always checking behind us to see that everyone was with us at all times.. Everyone looked out for each other! It was awesome!
The airplane we took from Toronto to Vienna was a rather large one. Across, it sat two seats, an isle, three seats, another isle and then two seats. Not sure, I think it’s called a 767.. My seat was the middle seat of the center section. On my left was a lady named Tatiana. She was not with our group.. She is a native of Bosnia and was flying home to be with her family as they gathered around the bed of her ailing father named Savo who had recently fallen very ill. Tatiana and I talked for a good part of that 9 hour journey across the Atlantic. She was comforted in knowing that I would carry her prayer request’s with me to Medjugorje after we landed.. For me, she was a God-send! She knew just the right comforting words to say each time we hit turbulence and John-boy would close his eyes and grab a firm hold of the arms of the chairs on both sides of him.
I had only flown once before as a teenager. And so I was not prepared for the turbulence we were about to endure. Many who were well accustomed to flying commented later that it was one of the worse flights they had ever experienced.. every so often you could literally feel the plane suddenly drop.. you could feel it in your stomach.. I kept thinking, “There goes another 1000 feet! And another! And yet another!” I knew I shouldn’t have watched ‘Cast Away’ just before this journey! I learned a lot about myself on that plane! And about my relationship with God in how sometimes I lack trust in moments I most need to trust in Him.. But you see, God gave me two angels to accompany me, one on each side to help me along the way.. for the sweet elderly lady on my right also brought me comfort in those moments when she grabbed hold of my hand and told me everything would be okay.. It was as if Our Blessed Mother herself was speaking to me.. and peace and comfort overcame all fear and anxiety..
