Preach the Gospels at all times and when necessary use words.

The Way of God is beautiful!  So in Medugorje I had the feeling come over me that I wanted to be in Loreto, Italy on September 11 (the significance of this day  is it is the day of my Grandma Brown's birthday).  In Loreto, i would go to the Holy House.  Per tradition, the Holy House is where the Angel of the Lord came to Mary and told her that she would conceive a child through the Holy Spirit and Mary answered with a 'yes' to Gods will.  The house was moved when the Holy Land was lost by the Crusaders and no longer under the protection of the Christians.  For the safe keeping of the house, a family named Angelo moved the stone house.  Thus a legend of Angels moving the house was born. 

Anyways, I followed the holy spirit, took a bus after Mass in Medugorje and arrive in Split that evening.  I purchase my ferry ticket for an overnight ferry, found a church to pray, got wifi to let my family know my whereabouts and I then began walking to board the ship.  I began hearing many people shout 'Ciao Kim' and I see that it is my Italian friends. Due to the language barrier, I had thought they were leaving a different day and now we are on the same boat for the return trip to Ancona and from there they will drive to Loreto to celebrate Mass and then they return to the Naples area.  They offer me a ride on their bus to Loreto the following morning which I accept.  But a bus ride is not why God guided me here.  

So among the group, the many Italian Mamas all have wanted to make sure I was taken care of (my mom would be happy): they fed me, told me to avoid certain groups that were bad spiritually/sects, made sure I knew what was happening at Mass/Rosary, etc.  most of this was done via our chopped English/Italian/Spanish but we also one day found a cafe and used the wifi to use a translator so we could have a conversation.  In addition, to the many Mamas, I also got a new little sister.

This sister was the reason, that God brought me to Split on that day to take the ferry and why he had me come to Loreto on the 11th.  This is where the saying, "preach the gospel at all times and when necessary use words," comes into play.  It also simply comes to saying 'yes' to God, even when we do not know in the short-term where we end up (for we know in the long-term where our 'yes' to God will bring us). 

For God did not want my words but simply my actions. He wants our 'yes' and He wants us then to go do what He has told us.  So little sister and I could not have a conversation truly but through simple words in Italian we were able to make do but more important than any words I said, was simply loving.  On the ferry, I learned little sister has a very heavy heart and because of this, she is drawn to me because she wants that joy/freedom.  The freedom and joy we get when we drop the extra baggage, that God never intended for us.  The joy that comes with God.  My point to ponder here would simply be, what baggage do I hold on to?  Am I willing to drop that baggage?  

I do not know little sisters life story or what is happening currently in her life but I do know that she is at a tipping point with God in the best way possible and that soon she will find the rest, joy, and peace through Him that she needs. She just simply must keep saying 'yes', like our Mother Mary.  Without words you can feel someone's  pain and the fixer in me only wants to take it away, but not being able to communicate with words to find out what the problem is makes that impossible.  It also makes me rely on God so much more- literally using His words instead of my own.  To help her on her way, I gave her three scriptures to read- they share God's forgiveness and mercy, His love for us through Jesus' life and death, and God having a place for us.  Every person needs to understand how badly God loves them and how much He wants them.  If we all understood these simple, yet profound truths, I think the world would have peace and joy and not be the world that we see each time we read the newspaper or watch TV.  

In Loreto after Mass, when it was time for the Italians to leave, I said my goodbyes and when it came time for little sister and her mama they cried and of course, that made me cry.  Truly a beautiful part of life, how we weave in and out of each others life and in such a small amount of time, so great of a love can be formed. 

Fitting bible verse from evening vespers:

"To God whose power now at work in us can do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine—to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations, world without end. Amen."-  Ephesians 3:20-21

Getting to Medugorje

Before heading off to try and make my way to Medugorje, I simply ask Mary to intercede and if i was to go, she would make it work out somehow.  The train from Milano to Ancona was easy enough.  But the public transport in Ancona to the ferry was a bit crazy.  The people told us to wait at the bus stop for the 12 or 20.  I was joined by 2 New Zealand couples and two Aussies.  Between all of us, my Italian was the best which really means my pathetic version of Spanish just with added hand motions was the best.  After 30 minutes - we ask inside because we wanted to make sure and make it through customs to leave the country and make our ferry on time.  Inside tells us to go to the bus stop.  Well I begin reading and realize that the time schedule is color coded by about 10 different categories.  Not by days of the weeks or weekends but literally some buses would only run one day out of the entire month.  

So we begin walking to the ferry port.  Along the way, I simply ask Mary to intercede and to guide me correctly, since everyone is following me and a few of the people are too old to be getting turned around and walking more than needed.  Well we make to the port and I purchase my ferry ticket and with an hour to spare before they allow us to board, I decide on a little hike up to the church on the hill.  Beautiful scenery, beautiful church, but the hill was a good hike.  You know just getting my practice in!

Anyways, on the boat we all gather at the deck for a shared dinner and then I settle in to go to bed.  Awesome conversations today with the many people I met from the travel crew to my bunk-mate.  

We arrive to Croatia around 7:30am and I meet a priest from India that is serving in the Naples Diocese.  He is leading a group to Medugorje and I ask him if he knows when we get to port where the bus station is.  Well, Father John Kennedy takes me under his wing and lets me join his group on their charter bus.  Bam, once again, just feeling blessed by God.  Well, from there Maria, an Italian mama, takes me under her wing - even though she does not speak English.  On the bus, I meet a young woman from Milan that met this outgoing Italian group on the ferry and they brought her under their wing as well and now she is traveling to Medugorje with them as well.  Other then Father, she is the only one that speaks English well enough to have a conversation and we have an awesome Holy Spirit led conversation.  (So the people at my church will find this awesome, as I talked with Father John, we learned that he and Father Victor Cruz are from the same order and he knows him.)

Upon arrival, we depart ways and I begin to find lodging.  I move away from the touristy area and head up the hill near the base of the mountain.  I share a community meal with fellow pilgrims of bread and water and we ate in silence to fast and pray for peace in the world, especially syria and the middle east, per the popes proclamation.  In my meditations today, I really just thought about peace and what causes us to go to war.  Oh, the hearts of men...

So I participate in the evening prayer and mass and then settle in for the evening.  I woke up early and decide to go to walk up cross mountain before heading to the afternoon mass.  On the walk up to cross mountain, there are the stations of the cross and you can pray them during your walk. From there I sat at the top for a few hours and just read my bible and thought.  As I was about to head down, I hear 'Americana' and its my Italian friends.  They are about to walk down and so I walk with them and we begin to pray the rosary.  There are a number of them that are older and need to go a lot slower and so I end up helping one of the women whom has bad legs make our way down the rocky path.  I will say, it is awesome how many older people make this journey because it is a rough path and many would skip it to avoid the pain.

  Sidenote: The cross at the mountain was put there by the town in 1933 in honor of 1900 years from Christ death and resurrection.  

As we walk down, I am going a lot slower then I would have because I am having to show footing and holding the hand for one of the women.  What should have been a less than one hour walk down and to the church becomes a 2 plus hour walk down the mountain.  On my mind is the mass at noon but I do not want to rush the women that are struggling and I simply have the faith that God will take care of it and so I focus on getting them down.  I am truly amazed by Gods grace and protection because I walked a good amount of the way backwards since I was having to hold the ladies hand as she made her steps.  Once again God provides.  

Anyways, about half way down, the women says, 'sorry kim' because she knows we are going slow and I tell her 'gratize, Camino Cruz- cinco- Simon'. She says station 5 and we both laugh.  As we near the bottom, she tells me she will pray 10 Hail Marys for me and I thank her.  Then she says she will do it daily always for my vocation.  On the grand scheme of things, me helping her down the mountain was a very small act.  Yet, her act of daily praying for me and my vocation... All I can say is wow.  I can not express, how beautiful or how much that means to me.  We get to the bottom of the mountain at two minutes until Mass and I take off.  Well, God is good because Mass started 15 minutes late and i got into the church before it began.  Talk about God taking care!