PILGRIMAGE TO SHRINES AND HOLY PLACES
Forewords
Pilgrimage is a holy journey in which a person undertakes to visit confirmed place motivated by the spiritual face or an experience by somebody else. To a lot of people however, people pilgrimage means visiting a location with a brief history of exceptional divine experience happened. Types of such great activities add a great spiritual revelation, hubs of holy personalities among others. People from different regions visit places thought to have this original spiritual significance (Eade & Michael p. 34). The practice of pilgrimage has a long history and folks from differing backgrounds, religiouns and traditions practice it. You can understand Pilgrimage as universal since it transcends many boundaries, and folks are always seeking answers to questions deeply rooted in their hearts.
Irrespective of the fact that different people have varied and interesting reasons they embark on pilgrimages and this most of the reason why are private and deeply rooted in their heart conscious, the motivation for pilgrimage is the inner needs, based on some spiritual expectations. Ideally, pilgrimage helps people get something that they can not achieve themselves. During pilgrimage, participants engage in soul-searching in attempt to connect with the spiritual world; they try to find revelations to the deep understandings of the spiritual. On the list of ancient and famous pilgrimage is the Contemporary Roman Catholic Pilgrimage to Medjugorje in the former Yugoslavian territories (Orec, Para 2). This paper therefore, presents a deep insight into Contemporary Roman Catholic Pilgrimage to Medjugorje in the former Yugoslavian territories. Furthermore, it talks about the various encounters of this pilgrimage as well as finds out the spiritual and social significance the participants attach to it.
Solitary pilgrims as a community
At times of pilgrimage, people anticipate deep personal experiences. However, support from the community is vital (Orec, Para 7). According to the latter, when many people or a community support the other person in the instances of pilgrimage, they offer moral support and elements of spiritual understanding. Pilgrims usually comes together and makes a community. They assume that through this community they experience a harmonized spiritual world, through this community the spirits of different pilgrims speaks to each other; all the pilgrims experience a divine transformation through Spiritual revelations (Dean, Para 2). The latter reveals that whenever people go to a certain site of pilgrimage, they often involve some expectations and there is an expected behavior or appearance in these places. Similarly, the sites, expect pilgrims to behave and act in a certain way. For example when the Muslim pilgrims visit Mecca they have a common dressing code which signifies that pilgrims are equal before God (Eade & Sallnow, Page 29). Furthermore, Pilgrims focuses on given core sites where they visit and hang out of meditation and make an effort to get the deep spiritual meanings.
Common pilgrimage experiences
In most pilgrimage sites, pilgrims usually face a series of ceremonial activities which include native dances, church services and prayers or devotional walks. The walking and doing rituals in a uniform rhythmic mode make the pilgrims believe that they can be walking in God's presence. Sometimes, the pilgrim's gets emotional and nervous and develop a sense of personal blame. During the pilgrimage people comes face-to-face with the hidden life realities; they become more connected with the inner person (Turner & Turner, p. 124).
The catholic pilgrimage
Catholic faithfuls form a large band of the Christian community which has a great attachment to pilgrimage sites. The catholic pilgrim's site includes; catholic shrines, places of Marian apparitions, Fatima, and Medjugorje (Dean, Para 10). According to Dean, Catholic faithful tour these places to deepen their understanding on the core places of devotion. The Catholic pilgrims usually tours places which various bible holy personalities once tourd. Some of the sites allow pilgrims to walk with Jesus on his way to Calvary. Some catholic pilgrims tours places where Peter and Paul were when they delivered the info about the resurrection gift to Jesus Christ. They visit these places to allow them to have the same experience with these biblical personalities (Dean, Para 8). According to Orec (Para 2), the Catholic spiritual journey tries to check out Jesus himself in discipleship, which involves simulation, understanding, and service. The Catholic faithful tries to undergo and experience transformation just like the many disciple of Jesus did. Furthermore, they take part in pilgrimage so they can experience some reflection and deep understanding using their God while still trying to get some revelations about their spiritual life.
The importance of the ritual in catholic pilgrimage
Some rituals practiced in the Catholic pilgrimage sites to help the pilgrims improve their spiritual understanding. These rituals include blessings from the sacred water, processions, the holy Eucharist feast, and blessing of the sick. These rituals use signs and a harmonized hymn which evokes the feelings that motivates the dairy life of the pilgrims. These rituals are expressive plus they make the faithful experience some mystic powers and communicate with their souls (Dean, Para 7).
Marian Apparitions
Ideally, an apparition is a mystic revelation that is noticeable through the eyes. For along time, Christians claims the Virgin Mary has manifested to them in enough time of needs. The devotion to Mary has become an important part of the catholic faithful. The claim of the Mary appearances to Christians has become widespread. During the Marian apparitions' people undergo some mystic activities they have never experienced before (Eade & Michael, p. 154). For the latter, earliest apparitions of Mary are healing and restoration of health. By this time, the medical knowledge was low and people traveled to shrines to seek cures to the diseases they could understand. Another imagination about Mary on earth is that of an intercessor between mankind and God. According to Dean (Para 5), the Catholics have a solid believe the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus intercedes between people and her son, Jesus. Some believes she has the capability to influence Gods decisions. Moreover, the claim of mystic healing in the shrines continues to be common among Christians.
Catholic Pilgrimage to Medjugorje
The first apparitions
In June 1981 six children from medjugorje, a village in Bosnia, reported that that they had seen a vision of the Virgin Mary. They said the vision is at form of effulgence of light. Inside the first day of the vision, the six children saw a woman with a kid and because of fear, the kids ran away. The next morning, the same woman appeared at the same spot alone and the kids visited her and they had a conversation. The woman had blue eyes and dressed up in a gray dress and a white veil (Eade & Sallnow, p. 27). The latter reports that these apparitions seemed to the six children several times. In place, various doctors and psychologist questioned and tested them to see whether they were normal. The entire test revealed that all the teenagers were not lying and were children of average intelligence from normal background. The doctors proved the girls and boys had no psychological disorder. Due to the controversies that resulted from these apparitions, bishop Zanic was sympathetic to the knowledge the young visionaries underwent from some church leaders. He issued statements that suggested the young visionaries were not lying nor were they influenced by anybody. Instead, Zanic contented that they were expressing their personal in-depth experience. However, he said that everything was not clear at that time (Eade & Michael, p 32). For reasons not clear soon after his statement, the bishop changed his stance and became a critic of the medjugorje apparitions. From the first apparitions the young people continued to experience the apparitions. According to Dean (para 7), four of these still experience dairy visions even in present days.
How the apparitions occur.
The apparition come spontaneously, as the children wait while reciteing rosary. Before the last part of rosary the childrent enter the sacristy where they pray loudly with the faithful. The visinaries then kneel down together and appearance upwards together in the same side, with an anticipaing expression. Their mouths become if they're speaking however they don't utter any sound (Heidi & Pile p. 48). Their glances converge to a certain point which shows the point of the apparitions which seems so close to them. Usually, the apparitions last for between one and tree minutes. After the apparitions experience, the visionaries' reports the message the Virgin Mary wanted sent to the pilgrims. Consequently, they remain functional during the experience of the apparitions, they lose in touch with the normal world and their physical body functioning remains unuttered. The visionaries pray with Madonna without losing equilibrium they then return to the standard world without the psychological trauma (Heidi, & Pile, p. 46). One of the most interesting part of the Mejugorje apparitions however, is the fact for the six years the young visionaries remain normal and health without the neurotic problems. They were subjects of varied interrogations and medical testing from both the government and the Catholic Chuch tested the credibility of their apparititions (Orec Fra, para 8).
Today many pilgrims from around the globe visit medugorje to have the spiritual expereince. Both Christiant and non-Christians visit this place, approximately 15 million pilgrim's visit Medjugorje to connect with the spiritual world. While here, many people express their confessions, this occurs in this place more so, than another place in the planet. Also, many player groups have formed in various parts of the globe for Medjugorje. The message frm the visionaries has made big followers all around the globe. Through the war, more than 200, 000 pilgrims visited medjugroje annually, today over a million pilgrims visit each year (Sells, p. 122).
Attacks and criticism
Although the visionaries at medjugorje have obtained the strong support they also have received critics from the public even some Catholics question the authenticity of these apparitions. The catholic traditions declare that apparitions are manipulations from the Franciscan order. They claim the medjugorje apparition undermines the importance of Fatima. Medjugorje apparitions are open while Fatima rejected communism in the society (Orec Fra, Para 8).
Message from medjugorje
In medjugorje Mary appears in troubled times where she pleads to the people to change their sinful ways of life and make the life span better. The messages she send are deep secrets that explain current events nowadays. Sometimes these are threatening; a note which tells visitors to repent or they could face some unforeseen catastrophes. She antecedes between men and Christ to avert some catastrophic happening within the people (Janz, p. 45). The major messages from Medjugorje are -
Prayer
The Virgin Mary recommends that the visitors to pray, she tells visitors to pray with love and should concentrate in their prayers. She points out that prayers heals people soul, prayer helps to heal sins. She sends the message that without prayer human being cannot experience God's presence (Orec Fra par 11). The girl says that everyone should pray because through their prayer one redees their soul and defeats Satan. She encourages the faithful to allow the gamer rule the world because the power of Satan will destroy Satan's evil, therefore Christians should not fear Satan because prayer permits them to conquer him (Orec Fra par 12).
Fasting
The lady asks Christians to fast twice weekly to allow them to receive spiritual healing and freedom. She says that through fasting the prayers can avert the happening of war she says that fasting is a sacrifice of human to God and folks should purify themselves during fasting.
Reading the bible
The lady message tells individuals who they have got forgotten the bible plus they should pray everyday. She says that every family should pray and browse the bible every day.
Confessions
The Virgin Mary tells people to confess their sins so they can go right to god, the father. She encourages the west make monthly confessions because confessions provide remedies to the church. Moreover, confessions fill the pilgrim's with joy when they hear them (Dean, par 7).
Eucharist
The Virgin Mary sends the message to the church to wait the Sunday masses and people should celebrate Eucharist since it is the surprise from god, the father. She says that she takes the mass as the main moment of holy life of the person. The Virgin Mary is crying because people don't take Jesus Christ with the seriousness he deserves. She says the Eucharist is an indicator that Jesus has resurrected and it is in our life (Orec Fra par 11).
Vatican reaction reactions to the medjugorje apparitions
In the 1985 arch bishop Alberto Bovone who was the secretary of the Doctrine of the Faith wrote a message to the Italian Bishop Conferences asking those to discourage the pilgrims touring medjugorje. However, the Vatican was not in a position to affirm whether Catholic faithful should attend the pilgrims in medjugorje. The church was struggling to give guidelines to its faithful on the authenticity of the medjugorje apparitions. Consequently, the problem is growing in complications and controversy hence raising the fear the Medjugorje teaching may contradict the church teachings. You will discover doubts regarding the Medjugorje apparitions if they are divine or based on personal visions. Although Vatican hasn't given its stand on this issue, the pilgrims stream dairy to Medjugorje to experience the apparitions.
Conclusion
Pilgrimage is an important part in human life since it provides the connection between man and some divine powers. Since time immemorial the Catholic faithful have been visiting various shrines, which they believe connected them with Jesus and his disciples. They believe that visiting these places provides a spiritual reference to their creator. The medjugorje apparition has attracted many pilgrims from different parts of the planet. The pilgrim touring medjugorje expects to receive some spiritual teaching of the Virgin Mary. Although the Catholic Church hasn't universally accepted the medjugorje pilgrimage it is still an important site to the catholic faithful.
Works cited
Dean, Aloha Medjugorje Catholic Pilgrimages-The 25th Anniversary (2006)
Vthawaii. comDecember, 2 2009 http://www. vthawaii. com/EXTRA/Medjugorje/Medjugorje. html Eade, John & Sallnow Michael. Contesting the sacred: the anthropology of pilgrimage Illinois, University of Illinois Press, 2000
Heidi, Nast & Steve, Pile. Places through the Body Pilgrimage to Medjugorje, London, Routledge, 1998
Janz Denis. Medjugorje's Miracles: Faith and Profit, New Orleans, Loyola University, 1987
Orec Fra Leonard, The pilgrims' gatherings in Medjugorje 26, 2004 December 8, 2009 http://www. medjugorje. ws/en/apparitions/docs-pilgrims-gatherings-medjugorje/
Sells Michael Anthony. The Bridge betrayed: religion and genocide in Bosnia, California. University of California Press, 1998
Turner, Edith & Turner Victor Witter. Image and pilgrimage in Christian culture: anthropological perspectives Columbia, Columbia University Press, 1995
