Pentecost Sunday would be our final full day in Medjugorje. There was no other opportunity to pray together on Apparition Hill, so at 6 AM, off we went.
Soon after the first Apparition, Ivan and others erected a cross on Apparition Hill and painted it blue. There was no religious significance to the color. They used blue because it was the only paint that Ivan’s father had.
Getting up the hill was not easy for me because the ground is rocky and uneven and I felt hesitant about moving upward. Ours was not the only group that had intentions of praying on the hill that morning. Several times, people I didn’t know extended a hand to help me. We all prayed the rosary together that morning under the blue cross on Apparition Hill.
We walked back to Ivan’s for breakfast, followed by packing. Then we walked to town for the 11 o’clock English mass. Surprise! The 11 o’clock mass was in what seemed to be Haitian French, in a huge building that was set up like a church. It reminded me of many years earlier in my own parish when we had so many worshippers at Christmas that an “overflow” space was set up in the parish hall.
We stayed for the Haitian mass because it was being followed by the English mass at noon, and we would be assured of getting seats. A priest from the local parish officiated at the English mass. In addition, he said many things of interest. He addressed the teenagers, telling them that their jeans were inappropriate clothing for mass. In my opinion, he should have thanked them for attending, jeans and all. I remembered a little boy in my religious education class when I was a child who told our nun that he missed mass on Sunday because his mother didn’t have anything for him to wear but dungarees, which is what we called jeans then. My dear, sweet nun, Sister Mary Patrizio, told him, “If dungarees were all you had, God would have forgiven you for wearing them to mass.”
The priest also told the congregation that we could bring our exorcism items to him at 2 PM to be blessed. Exorcism items?! What are they, and who has them? I knew I was in a different part of the world, but was I in a different century? I was brought back to 2016 when an announcement was made that everyone who had ciliac disease and would therefore needed a special communion wafer was asked to raise a hand so that they could prepare the appropriate amount.
After mass, we walked to the Hotel Regina for lunch. Surprise! I didn’t order pizza. I was also surprised to find out that a Greek salad in Medjugorje has no lettuce. It has everything else you would find in a Greek salad in Connecticut, such as peppers, cucumbers, carrots, olives, and feta, but no lettuce.
Once back at our residence, some in our group expressed interest in going up Apparition Hill again, while others wanted to climb a mountain that was much higher and steeper, Mount Krizevac. JoAnn had wanted to climb the higher mountain, but eventually thought better of it. She and I walked to some of the local shops instead. We also saw a car that was decorated for the wedding that was the reason for the fireworks that had awakened me the night before. Soon the bride and groom prepared to enter the car. We learned that the custom in Bosnia was for the groom-to-be to get his bride at her house and take her to the church himself. They were both dressed in typical wedding attire for a bride and groom in our country: a tuxedo for him and a long embroidered white silk gown and veil for her. At least twenty cars followed them. JoAnn called “Congratulations!” and they responded with thanks in English.
After dinner, Dianne came to us, saying that she and John had heard that someone had had a difficult time with carsickness on the bus on the way there. She asked if we knew who the person was, because she and John had plenty of room in their rental car and and they wanted to invite whoever it was, to join them. What a relief! I was not feeling comfortable about tomorrow’s three hour bus ride bus ride, so I was thrilled to accept her invitation.
We all gathered in the chapel. We played a game from childhood called “Telephone.” Several people were chosen to wait outside while Ivanka told the majority of the group a story that had many parts. Next, someone who heard the story was chosen to tell it to one of those who had not. Then that person had to repeat it to the next one, until there was one person left. Just as in childhood, the story the final person told was completely different from the one with which we started, and it was hilarious.