This year, at the beginning of the Lent, a spiritual retreat was held for the parishioners of the parish of Medjugorje. This spiritual retreat was led by Fr. Ilija Grgić, provincial delegate of the Society of Missionaries of the Blood of Christ in Croatia. The spiritual retreat began on the Ash Wednesday with an evening Holy Mass in the church of St. James, celebrated by Fr. Ilija Grgić, and after the Holy mass, the rite of ashes followed, followed by a spiritual lecture in the Hall of St. John Paul II.
Fr. Ilija Grgić also celebrated an evening Holy mass on Thursday, after which he again held a spiritual lecture for the parishioners. Fr. Ilija said that he began Lent with this spiritual retreat in a way with a good deed.
“I love Medjugorje. Every time I come, I recover and return to my basic settings. Something that is most visible and noticeable here in Medjugorje is a man who is searching for God, who is hungry for God, who is searching for his inner peace, who is searching for the meaning of his life… He is searching for the answer to that question: Why am I here? What am I doing in this world? And that is something that is present in the heart of every person. People come from all over the world, and they all have the same need, which is to meet the Lord,” said Fr. Grgić, adding that he felt a connection with the believers, to whom he told that he would not lead a spiritual retreat, but would only lend his throat, his voice and everything necessary for the Word of God to speak and to do what it wants. His exhortation was based on the lines from the 19th chapter of the First Book of Kings about the prophet Elijah.
“I have lent to Him and I am lending to Him everything that is in me so that He may speak, and this could be seen in the commonality we had at the Eucharist and later at the lecture. We listened to the Word of God together, I referred to some parts of that biblical passage, but I tried to let the Word speak. Then you can feel the power of that Word of God, and that power was experienced, heard, seen and tasted by the listeners, and then we were connected. And that is the bond that connects us in that,” said Father Ilija Grgić, who has been a regular pilgrim to Medjugorje for many years.
The spiritual retreat ended on Friday with the Stations of the Cross prayer on Križevac at 2 p.m., and the Stations of the Cross was led by the parish priest of Medjugorje, Fr. Zvonimir Pavičić.
A special feature of the Lenten season is the contemplation of Christ’s Passion in the Stations of the Cross devotion, which is said on Fridays on Križevac at 2 p.m., and in the parish church after the evening Holy Mass.
