There and Back Again: Part 2 (Medjugorje)

The Titanic

I've never slept on a boat before. We crossed the Adriatic to Croatia to the Ancient City of Split...pronounced just as you would in gymnastics. Summer home of Diocletian...etc.

We were soon on our way to Medjugorje. The views were spectacular...they're up there with the Amalfi Coast, but in this case it was a bit cloudy...

Croatian Coastline

The Shire

Medjugorje is a special town. First we crossed into Bosnia-Herzegovina (we were in the Herzegovina side of the country) which contrasted so much from the more-or-less wealthy Croatia. With a population of around 4 - 5,000 people the Shire-like town receives 1,000,000 pilgrims yearly. Obviously that means that there are too many hotels for its own good and what may seem like an apartment is most evidently and most frequently a Hotel, Hostel (Pansion), or B&B. To add to that the quantity of street vendors of religious articles is...best left aside...as it is in just about every well visited pilgrimage site I've ever been to (Assisi, Rome, Knock...what I've heard of Fatima and Lourdes).

In the life of a Christian what matters most is not what happens "on the outside" or "what others say" but what "The Other" says, God. There is no way to know for certain if the apparitions in Medjugorje are for certain or true but what matters (and this I did witness) is the right attitude many many pilgrims had on going on this pilgrimage.

The White Cross

Mom and Dad

We began with a fast and while there we decided the first thing we would attend would be Rosary and Eucharistic Adoration. In the days successive we climbed both Hills (Apparition and the Cross). What I felt most in prayer was a desire to give thanks to Our Lord and Our Lady for all they had done in my life...too much. I brought some 5 pages of prayer intentions-causes with me and I left them under a rock on Cross Hill remembering to pray for all those who sent me the intentions.


I don't know if I'll return to Medjugorje but I can say that it left a footprint in my heart. 

PS: Finally, I'd like to thank my uncle and aunt for so graciously inviting me along on this pilgrimage.

Me - Split, Croatia

There and Back Again: Part 1 (Lanciano)

Rome - Lanciano

Quaint but not that quaint

This past month I had the grace to go on a Marian Pilgrimage bringing with me many of your intentions. The destination was Medjugorje, site of the famous apparations of our Lady. Along the way we stopped in Lanciano, a small Italian city hidden in the hills along the Adriatic Sea.

Lanciano

 

It's a small town but it's not that small. There is an irregular main square, with its typical Italian cathedral and piazza Garibaldi named after the Italian General that helped unite the divided Italian kingdoms of the 19th century.


A Gift and Mystery

The tucked away town is known in Italy (and to the rest of the world) for one and only one reason: The Eucharistic Miracle. There are two known Eucharistic Miracles in town, one from over a millenium ago (8th century) in which a doubting priest in holding up the Eucharist beheld an accidental change in which the Transubstantiated host no longer looked like bread but was a piece of flesh. Within his chalice Our Lord's Blood coagulated into globules.

The flesh and blood remain in the same state for the past 12 centuries. See here for more information.

The Eucharist: Body and Blood of Our Lord

What did I do?

I spent a beautiful period of time in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament and receiving the grace to come inches from the Host and His Blood I knelt down and I asked for the grace to hold Him in my own hands one day as a faithful priest.

Miracle or no miracle (and in this case it is a miracle), now at home I gaze at the Eucharist with wonder and admiration. I hope one day I can celebrate mass with great love and fidelity and that I never stop contemplating the gift and mystery which happens within.

 

I encountered this beautiful statue of Our Lady and soon I was on my way to pay Her a visit.

To Be Continued...

 

 

 

To Hold my Author

I was first in line. To my right stood the 1700 year-old baptistery, behind me a line of over a hundred Brothers and behind them the beautiful mosaic-copy of Raphael's Transfiguration. To my left, as if in the distance, the Pietà, carved by Michaelangelo, maybe the most beautiful statue of Mary holding our Lord's lifeless body in her arms. Serenity, Love, Faith.

Before Mass

Before me stood open the famous (or infamous) "Door of Death". Nevertheless, In my hands I held the most important message of all, Life itself. With the immense crowds united at St. Peter's to celebrate the Eucharist the Holy See surprisingly requested seminarians to help give out Communion. Over two hundred Legionaries helped give communion in what seemed like the episode of the multiplication of the loaves. Walking into the Chapel where the Bl. Sacrament I discovered ciboria, not one or five but more like 200 with hosts waiting to be distributed.

I've had the chance to give the Eucharist several times often feeling so unworthy (other times not 'feeling' a thing) but nothing compared to waiting in line as the Celebration outside reached beyond the Consecration to step out into the Plaza and give the Body of Christ to the Mystical Body, his Church. I felt like a brand-new dad holding his brand-new son stepping outside. But in this case it was the Author of the Universe letting me hold Him in my hands.

Pope Francis during the Homily (B. Meza-photgraph)

Today the Pope gathered the many Ecclesial Movements and associations, everything from Opus Dei to the Charismatic Renewal, Marian prayer groups to my own Regnum Christi. The Church is Alive. You could not deny it seeing the 200,000+ people in the Plaza. I asked myself, What is the message here? Why was I asked to give Communion Pentecost Day? I have a feeling the message was to be sent by the Holy Spirit to share the Beauty of our Lord, as we should always do.

I can't wait to do it again...I guess I have all a life ahead of me for that.

PS: The Marian Pilgrimage was wonderful. I hope I can share some of those experiences soon. I carried your prayers with me.

A Journey to the feet of a Mother

There is a small shrine in the Vatican Gardens unknown to many dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe in which an sculpture of St. Juan Diego holds the tilma with Our Lady before the Franciscan Bishop of Mexico City. Mary can do great things through small people. If you would like to see what God can do with an 'insignificant' young girl from a remote corner of civilization, please see exhibit A: Mary, Our Mother.

 

View of St Peter's Basilica from Pope Benedict's new residence

 

In a few days I will be going on a journey, a pilgrimage, to Medjugorje. A few family members are coming to Rome on a pilgrimage and have graciously invited me to accompany them in their Marian Pilgrimage. Personally I don't really have a personal devotion to a geographic Madonna but I can say with great satisfaction that I have always loved Our Lady and, better yet, Our Lady has always loved me.



Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the Vatican Gardens

Just like my trip up Gran Sasso (click here to see how that went) I would like to invite you to come along spiritually. I'm leaving on Thursday and I'll be back on Tuesday of the following week. I would love to collect your prayer intentions to bring with me so that I can remember all of you in my prayers and offer them to Our Lady.

 

Here are a few that come to mind:

 

1. For a cousin who will be defending her doctorate in Theology soon.

2. For all seminarians that they persevere despite the hardships they endure.

3. For all those soon to marry, but especially Vanessa L. and Ray D. as well as Simone R. and Alessandra

4. For Life, from the womb to the tomb.

 

I would be honored if you sent me an intention, please send it to brotherjohnlc@gmail.com

 

Thank you!

God bless, Brother John LC

 

On Earth as It is in Heaven

 

 

Gran Corno Peak during the Sunday climb

 

 Sunday was one of the most beautiful days of my life. I carried your prayer intentions-causes around my neck in a sleeve. I received 6 pages worth of prayer intentions and I spent most of the time in prayer. With me were a few friends from the seminary. They have been with me since practically day one of my vocation.

 

 As we reached further up into the mountains the air got thinner. Since I was without breath I prayed during much of the journey. One lesson I learned was just as when there is little oxygen no matter how much one inhales your body cannot recover and just so it is when you are without grace.

  

At 12 noon we reached our vertical limit. I confess, we didn't make it to the top. There was the possibility that since the trails are still snowed over we would have had to have pro gear (and thanks to a vow of poverty I didn't have crampons and an ice ax nor a guide). We stopped to pray a psalm and a decade of the rosary. I hope you joined me wherever you were. To date Gran Corno (tallest peak in the circuit) is the only mountain that I haven't been able to summit in my life.
I guess I'll have to be back this summer! Throughout the day I prayed (mainly because I didn't have extra breath) and this psalm came to mind.



Psalm 121

 

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills,

from whence cometh my help.

My help cometh from the LORD,

which made heaven and earth.

He will not suffer thy foot to be moved:

he that keepeth thee will not slumber.

Behold, he that keepeth Israel

shall neither slumber nor sleep.

The LORD is thy keeper:

the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.

The sun shall not smite thee by day,

nor the moon by night.

The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil:

he shall preserve thy soul.

The LORD shall preserve thy going out and

thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

 

 





View of Campo Pericoli - on the right is Corno Grande

 

 



After a long descent (some times I find them more difficult than the climb) we made it safe and sound to the base just about a vertical mile below. It's hard to imagine that I had climbed up a complete vertical mile up. Not only that climbed back down with a smile.

 

We visited a beautiful shrine dedicated to Blessed Pope John Paul II and I left our prayer intentions under his feet asking for special graces. 

 

"If you are what you should be you will set the world ablaze"

John Paul the Great

 

 

Here are a few things I'd like to share:

 

Video: 44 seconds of what life is like at 8576 ft (2614m)

Photo Gallery

PS: I hope we can do it it again this summer.