Spiritual Retreat for Pilgrimage Organizers Ended
The 31st International Spiritual Retreat for Pilgrimage Organizers, Leaders of Peace Centers, Prayer and Charity Groups Related to Medjugorje began on Monday, January 9, in Medjugorje, and ended today, March 13, 2026.
There were about 200 participants from 29 countries at this spiritual renewal: Italy, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Ireland, the USA, England, Spain, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Colombia, El Salvador, Slovenia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belgium, Canada, France, Poland, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Romania, Mexico, Russia, Lebanon, Nicaragua, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
''You are all leaders and you have a great mission. Being in a position to lead someone is a terribly great mission, being in a position to bring someone somewhere is a great mission. You are on a similar mission as we Franciscans – you lead people! And that is a great gift from God. If we understand that we are led in one way or another, if we understand that grace guides us through life, then it is easier for us to understand our role – to be a disciple. Being a disciple means that you must not keep something to yourself when you have learned, experienced and seen it, but you must share it with others”, said the provincial of the Franciscan Province of Herzegovina, Fr. Jozo Grbeš, who addressed them on the last day of the spiritual retreat, speaking about their vocation and about Medjugorje.
“Medjugorje develops in us a new way of life, a life of trust, a life of listening and a life of allowing, for a person to allow grace, for the Lord to guide him. I believe that most people have in common when they come to Medjugorje that they feel safe here in a very insecure world. People long for a place, for a time, for people in whom and with whom they feel safe. Medjugorje is the gift of silence. Here one learns to be silent, and when one learns to be silent, then God speaks, and very deeply. Medjugorje tells us what is important in life, and that is one of the most important questions in our lives, to distinguish what is important and what is not. Medjugorje is a mountain that every person needs to encounter. We all have to climb somewhere to meet the Lord and in the end Medjugorje is Our Lady who takes us back to the beginning. When I recently asked a visionary if she could put Our Lady in one word, she said she could and that it was love, so I wondered if we could put our lives in that word love,'' said Fr. Jozo and recommended that they find time for silence and conversation with the elderly people in Medjugorje who would tell them the truth.
"This year there will be a lot of people in Medjugorje, take them back to the beginnings, to the original messages, to the original love, and that is what Medjugorje is and then Our Lady does it with her love and grace to help people - through that life as it is - to reach Him," said Fr. Jozo Grbeš on the last day of this spiritual renewal, at which the lecturer was the Medjugorje parish priest Fr. Zvonimir Pavičić. In addition to participating in the prayer program in the Medjugorje parish church, the participants of the 31st International Spiritual Retreat for pilgrimage organizers, leaders of peace centers, prayer and charitable groups related to Medjugorje prayed on Cross Mountain and on the Apparition Hill, had daily adoration of Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, lectures, joint gatherings... At the end of this spiritual retreat, the Holy Mass was celebrated by Archbishop Aldo Cavalli, the Apostolic Visitor with a special role for the parish of Medjugorje.