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How God Provided for Our Family Pilgrimage to Medjugorje

Richard L George family praying before the Cross on Cross Mountain in Medjugorje photograph

When Mary Sue returned home, she showed the image to some of the people that work for her religious books and gift store, The Catholic Shoppe, located in the Chicago area. She expressed her desire to meet the artist who painted it. One of the ladies said that she had seen the image before on my website (it was first published on my website in 2012) and that she would get my contact information.

Mary Sue then reached out to me asking permission to use the image on the cover of Medjugorje Magazine. I gave her written permission to legally use it.

Then two of her helpers flew to Kansas to interview me at my home in the Wichita, Kansas area.

Mary Sue featured not only my sacred artwork on the cover of Medjugorje Magazine, but in other issues she also featured different articles about me & my sacred art, my wife & our marriage and our children.

Then God did something wonderful! He put the intention on her heart to ask in her magazine if anyone would be willing to donate funds to send us as a family to Medjugorje.

As a result we received the funds to pilgrimage as a family to Medjugorje!

All Glory and Thanks be to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! Thank you Mother Mary!! Thank you all Holy Angels and Saints in Heaven!!! And thank you, Mary Sue Eck, and those who gave for the intention to send my family to Medjugorje!!!

From our children:

Faustina 6 years old at the time: “I liked everything in Medjugorje especially Adoration.” (we attended Adoration during the 3 o’clock hour for the Divine Mercy Chaplet, but she especially liked the priest who led the evening international Adoration).

 Pio 12 years old at the time: “The evening international gathering for Adoration was so special. It was amazing to see all the people there. Everyone was participating in the Mass, and the Church was packed with so many people that if you didn't get in fast after a (the earlier) Mass was done, you wouldn't get a seat! It's so amazing to see thousands of Catholics there. Medjugorje is awesome!”

 Francesco 15 years old at the time: "My favorite part of our trip to Medjugorje was going up Mount Krizevac. It was most interesting going up; we saw many pilgrims going up bare-foot. When we got up to the top, we saw the famous white cross there and people praying around it. I hear that the cross has a a piece of the True Cross in it. So it was really amazing praying there at the cross. My second most favorite part of the trip was going up mount Podbrdo. My family and I prayed the Divine Mercy Chaplet on the way up to the Blue Crosses: that is, two blue crosses. The terrain was much more rocky than that of Krizevac. My third favorite part of the trip was Adoration. It was done in a fashion which surpasses that way which is normally done in the U.S.A. It was also led most profoundly. My fourth favorite part was the statue of the Risen Christ. We went twice. The first time, I wiped ten Medjugorje clothes. The second time, I wiped fifty clothes. I would definitely recommend going to Medjugorje."

 Jacinta 18 years old at the time: "My favorite part about Medjugorje was the outdoor Mass and Adoration."

 Matthew 20 years old at the time: "It's hard to say which part about my pilgrimage to Medjugorje I liked best: there are so many! But one of them would definitely be going to the evening program Mass one time when there was a bad storm. There was plenty of thunder, lightning, wind, rain, and hail, which started during the time the two Rosaries were being prayed before Mass. Most of the people left when it started to get pretty bad, about when the first reading was being read. But at least a few hundred stayed the entire time, enduring the storm to be there for Jesus Christ present in the Eucharist. It was pretty amazing to see the faith of these people, who stayed even after Mass and the seven sorrows prayer afterwards to receive a special blessing for religious articles. It was a Mass I'll never forget."

 JohnPaul 22 years old at the time: "Adoration after the universal Mass every evening. Getting up early on the second of the month and walking to Podbrdo (Hill of Apparitions) and standing and praying the rosary in the cool May morning waiting in great anticipation for our Blessed Mother to come. Also, seeing the Medjugorje confessional lines was amazing. Medjugorje has the longest confessional lines in the world! It is so beautiful to see so many people taking advantage of this great sacrament."

 Joseph 23 years old at the time: ""It's hard to pick one thing as my favorite part of our trip to Medjugorje, but if I had to pick one I would have to say it was being at the apparition on the second of the month. We got up early and arrived at the site three hours before the time of the apparition but it was still really hard to find a spot where you could get even a glimpse of the visionary. When the vision started there was a powerful feeling that you were in the presence of a supernatural being; it's hard to explain but you knew someone was there that you couldn't see but was very real. It was an amazing, grace filled experience and I pray to return someday."

From Richard: "My heart longed to return for years and years and so to no surprise it was a great refreshment to my soul.

As I prayed there in Medjugorje again with my heart pounding, tears flowing, body shaking with gratitude and a deep sense love for God, I realized a complete confidence in God’s Merciful Love for us!

Between March of 1988 and January 1991, I had been on pilgrimage five different times for a cumulative stay of 6 months in Medjugorje. Through the years I so desperately desired to return to Medjugorje but struggled to make it happen.

Nonetheless, I kept looking for an opportunity to bring our family on pilgrimage to Medjugorje.

In the meantime, over the next several years, we settled on making yearly pilgrimages to shrines in the USA.

My wife and the children followed my lead as I strove to live the 5 Stones of Medjugorje personally and as a family.

Finally my wife and children get to witness and join with thousands and thousands of people in the living of the Catholic faith at fever pitch.

We saw the more radical demands of the Gospel being embraced everywhere around us. In turn, being there served as a catalyst to propel us forward in more fully embracing the call to daily conversion, to prayer & fasting, to faith, hope, & love.

Although I had hoped for some relief from Psoriatic Arthritis before going, while in Medjugorje, I experienced much worse flare ups.

However, because of the multitudes answering the call in praying and making sacrifices for Our Blessed Mother’s intensions, my heart was moved and opened up to receive the grace to do the same. Later I found out that my son, JohnPaul, asked God to take on some of my discomfort. For the entire time we were there his fingers on one his hands swelled up and remained so until we returned home.

The extra ordinary expressions of faith and joy of answering the call could be seen everywhere.

I noticed an elderly woman making her way up Mt Krizevac. She looked like she was in her mid to late 70’s but not in good health. The first thing I thought about upon seeing her was the poor condition of my mom. I couldn’t image my mom being able to make it up Cross Mountain in her current condition and here there is a woman doing it and doing it barefoot on the jagged rocks.

And here I was concerned before coming to Medjugorje about my being able to make it up to the top because of my psoriatic arthritis condition. Well seeing her inspired me to embrace and offer up the present difficulty and to love God more and more with each step.

Then I saw that there were pregnant women making their way up. And there were even those carrying small children in backpacks going up that steep, rocky terrain.

Proverbs 27:17 is so true: “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.”

In Medjugorje we experienced, in an elevated sense, the living out of our Catholic faith in the way of running to the love of God through the Sacraments; and also, we witnessed an increase in the love for one another that breaks all language barriers.

Each day was refreshing and inspiring with the participation in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in English in the morning and then in the International Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in the evening.

With the evening program we had the gift to be there praying and meditating on the sacred mysteries of the Holy Rosary with thousands of pilgrims. And then after Mass, as one big family, we adored the Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, with Franciscan priest-lead Adoration Service.

In between times there were a host of other special moments:

    • we were very blessed to be prayerfully present on the Hill of Apparitions for Mirjana’s 2nd of the month apparition
    • the stations of the Rosary on the Hill of Podbrdo
      • the Cross Mountain Stations, and personal prayer before the Cross that was erected in 1933 in honor of the 1900 anniversary and has a true relic of the Cross Jesus was crucified on
    • the Luminous Mosaics Rosary, the Stations garden, The Cross-Resurrection statue
    • personal prayer before Father Slavko Barbaric’s grave
    • daily visits at the 3 O’clock the Adoration Chapel, with the prayer of the Divine Mercy
    • celebrating Divine Mercy Sunday and the feast of Saint George in Medjugorje
    • The numerous confessionals with the celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation

From Margaret: Coming soon!

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