Part 3 - Fraternity Retreat

On Monday afternoon, Fr Jost drove us to the Fraternity Retreat. It was a wonderful week. This is the first retreat that Kev and I have been to where we haven't been part of the organisation in some way. We are always happy to be of service, but it was also nice to be able to participate without having anything else to do but receive. There were many inspiring talks; great times of prayer; and many brothers and sisters of the Emmanuel Community to meet.

Fr Jost explaining the image that he painted of Our Lady

On Friday, we caught coaches to an important shrine in the countryside of Brezje. Actually, we drove most of the way, but we made it a pilgrimage and walked the last hour. The shrine was beautiful. We had Mass together, then prayed in front of a miraculous image of Mary. Families were given the opportunity to have a special blessing from one of the many priests in front of the image. Kev and I received a blessing, praying for the gift of children. It was very moving.

Shrine of Marija Pomagaj


Fr Alec and Kev at the shrine

(if you look very closely, you can see the church windows on the left)


Nice photo taken from the bus

The retreat was wonderful. I felt a particular closeness to God during this time. One morning during our time of Praise (singing joyful hymns of thanks to God), one of the participants said that they felt that God wanted to give us new life. We hear this type of thing and read it in Scripture often, but I felt at this moment that it was a real blessing that was given to me. I experienced a real sense of peace, and it hasn't left me (even though I am back in Rome!!!!)

Kev and I helped with "childrens' ministry" on Friday afternoon, so that the parents could also take part in the formation and the prayer. We....I mean the children.....had a lot of fun making wooden boxes. I must say, with all humility, that mine was by far the best. Kev pointed out that the kids were about a fifth of my age, but I don't think there is any need to make excuses for them. I mean, take a look at the photo. Such precision! A work of art!

Kev managed to fit it into his backpack so that we could take it home (its about 20 x 20 x 25 cm). We were a little scared that we wouldn't get it through security at the airport because it has loads of nails in it, but it wasn't a problem. Now we have a useless (but undeniably beautiful) box at home.

We were very tempted to stay for an extra few days, because we just love Slovenia. There were many places that we would have liked to visit, but that will have to wait for another time. There is too much work to do at the School at the moment.

So, our Croatian friend Leo very kindly drove us to the Ljubljana train station at 2am for a 2:30am journey back to Venice. We wanted to get there in good time so that there was no chance of missing it. While we were waiting for our train, there was an announcement that there was a 60 minute delay. So we sat there for an hour and a half in the middle of the night. We prayed a Rosary and the time seemed to go pretty quickly.

This time we booked normal seats instead of the Sleeper like last time. Comparatively speaking, it was much better. So it was like another nightmare, but much less horrific ! Nah, it wasn't too bad. We slept on and off for the five hour trip. It was pretty obvious when we crossed the border into Italy. We were woken to the dulcet tones of, "PASSAPORTI PASSAPORTI PASSAPORTI". I think they wanted to see our passports!!!!

When we arrived in Venice, we went to Mass at the same church as last time. Then we had a nice breaky in a little restaurant by the water, then caught the bus to the airport, and flew back to Rome. Pretty uneventful really! That's the type of journey ya want.