About 300 priests from 38 countries at spiritual retreat in Medjugorje

With the registration of participants and participation in the evening prayer program in the Church of St. James, in Medjugorje on Monday, June 29, on the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, the 29th International Spiritual Retreat for Priests began, which will last until Friday, July 3. The theme of this spiritual retreat is Ad fontem! To the source! In the school of Our Lady, which is the theme of all this year's spiritual retreats in Medjugorje.

The lecturer at the spiritual retreat is Fr. Ante Vučković, who on the first day of this spiritual retreat at the White Dome of the Church of St. James in Medjugorje, with the concelebration of 288 priests, presided over the Holy Mass, and in his homily he also spoke about these two giants, as he called Saint Peter and Saint Paul, and when asked who we humans are? He answered that we are what we are in the eyes of the Creator.

''We are what we are in His heart. This message must reach people who are driven mad by the information that they are something else, that they can be whatever they want. This message must reach man because it is the only thing that saves him. We, brother priests, are here to bring this message to people in the way that Paul did and Peter did – with gentleness, clarity, words, life...

May God grant that these two giants will be of help to us so that we can do what they started, and what we have accepted to bring to the world that needs God to discover who He is," said Fr. Ante Vučković in his homily.

The coordinator of the spiritual retreat is the parish priest of Medjugorje, Fr. Zvonimir Pavičić, and about 300 priests from: Malawi, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Pakistan, the USA, India, Romania, England, Philippines, Italy, Cameroon, Brazil, Angola, Congo, Tanzania, Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Venezuela, Spain, Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Poland, Lithuania, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, France, Benin, Belgium, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Hungary and Ukraine are participating in it.

In addition to the lectures of Fr. Ante Vučković, the participants of this spiritual retreat participate in Holy Mass, pray the rosary, have adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, and will also participate in the Way of the Cross along Križevac, where they will confess. On the last day of the spiritual retreat, they will also visit the grave of Fr. Slavko Barbarić. As in all previous years, the parishioners of the Medjugorje parish provide free accommodation for all the priests during the spiritual retrea.