Prayer & People

My preferred style of prayer is in my mind and heart, but I have realized for many they want to verbally express their prayers be it through speaking or singing.  We all have different learning styles and in the same way we all have different prayer styles.  Just as a teacher must teach to both the student that learns through lecturing as well as the student that learns from hands on experience (among other learning styles); we as a church offer many ways to pray to God.  The silence for me is where I most often meet God and hear God.  I still participate in group prayers and songs, but a lot of times, I will strive to silence out all the noise around me and zone in on the silence I can find within me that God provides.  I am nowhere perfect but I have come a long way from previously being distracted by others. 

 Alas, In Medugorje there were many groups from many countries that were praying in their native language.  This is one thing, which I love about the Catholic Church- our very name means we are universal- even though we do not speak the same language, we have the same faith and we are able to pray together and celebrate Mass together without actually needing to speak the same vocal language because we speak the same spiritual language (from our heart and minds).  Each evening, at the evening prayer service and Mass- we would all gather and say the rosary in our own language.  Then at Mass you would hear the people respond to the Priest in many languages.  Whenever I am with a large community of Catholics from different parts of the world, I have a very strong appreciation for the men and women, who came before and shared the truth to all the corners of the world- starting with the apostles.  So in this very brief blog, I leave you with that thought... Who can I thank for sharing the truth with me?  Most likely there is more than one.  Fitting, I come to that question on the eve of my grandmothers birthday, whom prayers are still with me and my family today from heaven.

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!