Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Patrick and Nancy's Castle


Morning Routines

   This morning Daffine and I stopped at the Franciscan Information Center to see if anyone had turned in her cell phone which she had lost two days ago.  Yesterday she stopped in but she found that the woman wasn't very helpful.  I went with her this morning so that I could speak to the woman in Croatian.  Today the woman looked in an area where lost items were turned in but she found nothing.
   We went to the 10 o'clock Mass.  A monsignor from New Zealand was the main celebrant.  He was a young priest so I was rather surprised that he was a monsignor .  His homily centered around St. Therese of Lisieux, "The Little Flower".  He shared how he really didn't like her as a saint when he was a young boy since she wasn't "macho" enough to play ball like a rugby player.  Besides that, she just prayed daily for the missions.  "How hard was that task?" he thought to himself as a child.  He certainly didn't think that such a simple task deserved sainthood.  Then years later, Pope John Paul II declared St. Therese of Lisieux a Doctor of the Church.  That disturbed this priest even further since she only lived to be 24 years old.  How could anyone so young be a Doctor of the Church?  Then this New Zealand monsignor realized that St. Therese of Lisieux was a model of prayer life for people of all ages.  

Medjugorje Castle

Entrance to "The Medjugorje Castle".
 If you are from the village of Medjugorje in Bosnia, all you have to say is "the castle" in English and cab drivers and other natives know exactly the place you are speaking of.  We took taxis after Mass from Sveti Jakov to The Medjugorje Castle.  This medieval-looking structure was built sometime in the 1990's when Patrick and Nancy Latta moved from Canada to Medjugorje.  The Medjugorje Castle is a retreat center built by Patrick and Nancy, free of charge to visiting priests, women religious, seminarians, and college students on a pilgrimage to Medjugorje.

Patrick telling us his story of conversion.
   Patrick had a powerful conversion from his very materialistic lifestyle.  He began his testimonial by telling us that he had been an
The retreat center at the castle.
extremely successful businessman in western Canada.  He had been raised Catholic and attended Catholic schools. He hated school, quit when he was only 16 years old, and took a job at a car dealership washing cars. He was so personable with the customers on the dealership lot that in ten years he owned the company.  After a while, Patrick's impressive salesmanship helped him acquire additional car dealerships.  He was one of the most successful  businessmen in western Canada.  However, his spiritual life was a void.  He lost interest in the Catholic faith, the Catholic church, and God when he left school.  The almighty dollar was his god and he made sure that his children knew this.  Whenever a problem would arise, Patrick used his wealth to fix it.  On weekends he would fly himself and his employees to Las Vegas, all expenses paid.  At this point in his testimonial he asked the pilgrims in attendance to guess how much it would have cost him to wine and dine about 30 of his employees.  As some pilgrims attempted to come up with a figure, he held up currency in one hand and proceeded to tell us that it cost him two marriages, abuse of drugs, abuse of alcohol, and a dysfunctional family.

One view of the room in which Patrick spoke  to us.
Another view of the same room.
   Patrick credited his mother's prayers for him for many, many years and a book about Mary's messages from Medjugorje that his third wife, Nancy, a Croatian, had given him to read, as the turning point in his spiritual life.  When he opened up the book he searched for the shortest sentence he could find.  It read, "I call you to conversion for the last time."  Then something incredible happened.  He felt that the message was directed to him and he began to cry uncontrollably.  It was this epiphany that caused him to sell all his car dealerships and move with Nancy to Medjugorje to begin a spiritual transformation.

Finding My Way Back to the Hotel


View of gravel pathway as I was leaving
the Medjugorje Castle. 
 A friend who had gone to Medjugorje a few years earlier had asked
me to extend his hello to Patrick and Nancy if our group did visit "The Castle".  As we were exiting the room where Patrick had spoken to us, I wanted to make sure to extend the hello from my friend using his first and last
A vineyard along the countryside.
Animals had no fences to confine them.
I saw a village in the distance.
name. While I waited in line to say a few words      to Patrick, the        rest of the              pilgrims in my         group had gone      to visit the              chapel in the          retreat center,          unbeknownst to me. Unfortunately, since Patrick and Nancy meet thousands of pilgrims throughout the year, Patrick didn't recognize the name of my friend and I had no idea where the rest of our group had gone.  When I was finished with my brief chat with Patrick, I looked around hoping to get a glimpse of a familiar face, but all were strangers.  I waited patiently for a few more minutes.  When I didn't see any familiar faces I took the tree-lined gravel pathway leading out of the castle and continued on a dirt road through the countryside, not really knowing if I was headed in the right direction.  As I traveled this dirt road, I saw a village in the distance.  I recalled that the group was going to have lunch at a pizzeria but I didn't know the name of the eatery nor the town in which it was located.  You can imagine my relief when I finally entered the village I had seen in the distance and spied a pizzeria.  I was sure the group had gone ahead of me and that they were here waiting for me.  Regrettably, none of the other pilgrims were to be found in the outdoor dining area nor inside.  I walked a little further and tried to use the GPS on my phone, but to no avail.  I stopped at a shop and spoke to them in Croatian asking for directions to Hotel Mir.  They were unfamiliar with the hotel.  I asked them for directions to the village of Bijakovici.  They pointed me down a paved road.
Some of the village roads were very narrow, however, vehicles maneuvered the winding streets.

I saw little shrines along the road.
It was a very hot day and I began to get extremely thirsty.  Every once
Another shrine I saw on my way
back to the hotel.
in a while I would stop and ask for directions to Hotel Mir to make sure that I was traveling in the right direction, but those of whom I inquired did not know of the place, so I began to ask directions to Crkva Sveti Jakov (St. James Church) since I knew that I could find my way back to the hotel from the church.  All knew of Crkva Sveti Jakov and I finally found my way back to the hotel.  I welcomed the comfort of the cool air in the lobby and went over to the bar area to purchase a bottle of sparkling mineral water. I took the bottle of water to my room, found the bag of peanuts I had brought with me, and sat on the side of my bed nourishing my body.  The peanuts satisfied my hunger until supper.
When I saw this four o'clock plant on my way back to Bijakovici I knew that it wasn't four o'clock yet because the blossoms were still closed.  Mom use to have this flowering plant in both the front and back yards.

Adoration After Dark

   We went to Adoration after supper.  I was anxious to get there so I
Our priests and the Franciscans
during Adoration. 
A daytime view of the seating area
for outdoor Adoration and
outdoor Mass. 
   left with Father        Adam.  Not too        long after that       Father Joe joined   us along the way.    A short while          later,   Irma came    along.    She and    I walked            together as Fathers Adam and Joe went on ahead to prepare for Adoration .  When we finally arrived at the outdoor area, Irma and I had trouble finding seats that were close together.  Since thousands of people come to Adoration we wanted to ensure that we sat in proximity of each other so that we could leave together after Benediction.  As we headed back, past the paved area, toward the gravel area, Andy (another pilgrim) approached us to let us know that there were two seats nearby.  The benches were approximately where Irma and I had found seating in the past, but somehow had overlooked this space in the dark.  We were thankful to Andy for finding us this seating although much of the time was spent kneeling on concrete, not sitting.  After Adoration, Irma, my "Adoration buddy" and I walked arm in arm back to our hotel.

1 comment:

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