We're coming home!!
As I reflect on these past two weeks, I am once again so amazed by the goodness of God. Before embarking on this pilgrimage, I had an idea of the personal intentions I wanted to take before the Lord, but I had no idea of the old wounded places in my heart he was going to ask me to revisit. It was hard but even in the hurt, God provided me the grace to see what he was doing. Our loving and merciful Father is a healer. He fixes those who are broken and finds those who are lost. These past two weeks I have been stretched beyond my "breaking point". When my mind, heart, or body felt heavy, I would cry out, "God, I can't do this, please give me strength" and he always did. He still is.
God's timing is so perfect. I am one who runs away when my wounds become too much. But being in a foreign country with the same 25 people, I had nowhere to run to, but to the Father. Each time I encountered Him in prayer with a heavy heart, He was there giving me consolation and peace. He spoke His word to me through the celebration of holy Mass, scripture, conversations with others, and the environment around me.
Yesterday, we visited Fatima for the last time. Some of the pilgrims went on an optional tour and others explored the area themselves. I ate a yummy strawberry and hazelnut chocolate gelato. I will be thinking about the hazelnut chocolate for a while- so good. hehe
I wasn't able to go on the Fatima tour, but here is Josué's experience:
"A small group took off on a tour to see all the various apparition sites of Our Lady. We travelled about a mile or two through the humble streets of Fatima. We reached a forest-like part of Fatima, which led a path to the apparition site of Our Lady of Fatima on August 19th, 1917. This was the only apparition during those various months that was not on the 13th of the month, because the little Shepherds where held in prison for those days. There Our Lady pleaded the shepherds and the whole world to "Pray, pray, Pray!" And offer sacrifices to save souls from hell.
At this apparition site, the group of us spent a significant time in prayer. Our guide brought out his guitar and many people gathered to sing beautiful praises to Our Lady. It was such a unique experience, and everyone seemed to be filled with a peace and joy as Jose, our guide, led us praising our Mother. We also had a unique opportunity to speak to Our Lady from our hearts. We could not see or hear Our Lady like the little shepherds did, but we had a deep sense of Our Lady's presence in that peaceful site. There we offered our lives back to Our Blessed Mother and asked her to answer all the petitions we brought with us.
Afterwards we were led to the first apparition site in all of Fatima. A year before Our Lady appeared, the Angel of Peace appeared to the little shepherds offering them communion and asking them to pray for the souls who do not love God. This was another wonderful experience. We ended the tour by visiting the humble little houses from the childhood of the shepherds. There we saw how poor they lived as children, but it was an awesome experience to see all the photos of their family life. Our Lady also appeared at Jacinta and Francisco's house, at their death beds.
Soon after we headed back to Mass to give praise and Glory to God for the amazing experience we had of Mary and the little shepherds. We know very well they were accompanying us then, and we hope to bring them back to All Saints in our hearts.
I had an otherworldly experience speaking heart-to-heart with Our Lady at this apparition site. I felt in my heart an affirmation of my vocation and a renewed grace to seek out Sanctity through her heart. I was also so touched by Jose's singing to Our Lady. His beautiful Spanish songs sounded angelic, and I was filled with joy and emotion as I was singing to Our Beautiful Mother along with him. The other apparition sites of the Angel of Peace and the shepherds' homes were helping me enter into the Heavenly reality of the angels and Saints that desire to walk so closely with us to our path to Heaven."
Once we were done visiting Fatima, we took a bus back to a hotel in Lisbon. After two weeks of host homes and sharing bathrooms and bedrooms with 8+ people, the hotel room was luxury. Once we were settled in, we shared our takeaways from the pilgrimage with eachother. It was so moving to hear everyone's perspective of the journey we embarked on together and the personal invitation our loving Father had placed in each pilgrim's heart. We said good bye to our tour guide, José and gifted him a coffee cup filled with Euros for his guidance and kindness during our time here. After that, we all rested and prepared for our journey back home.
As I write this, we're on our first flight to Madrid and then will be flying back home from there. Our two weeks here have been so full of blessings, but we're all looking forward to being back home. Thank you all for your prayers!
Lastly, I'd just like to remind each of you that God desires healing for you. If you are in a season in your life where old wounds and hurts are surfacing and the Lord is inviting you to find healing, run TO Him, don't run away. Find someone to talk to (a good friend/priest) frequent the Sacraments, and pray each day. Usually when wounds arise, the evil one will be right there twisting things and filling our minds with lies because he doesn't want us to heal. If we don't fill our hearts and minds with things of Christ, the devil will fill us with despair. Hold onto hope dear brothers and sisters, for our Savior protects us by His precious blood and has conquered all evil. Don't hold back; trust God with your whole heart. He fixes those who are broken and finds those who are lost.
May God's Grace Abound,
Maryah ♡
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