Praised be Jesus Christ! It is not easy to describe all the graces we received during the seminar of fasting, prayer and silence during one week of October 2015. Our Lady gathered us – pilgrims from Latvia, Lithuania, Russia – as one big family of God. We spent five days together. We sat around one table, ate bread and drunk water or tea, not talking together but discovering that relationships can be built even in silence. We were uncovering the wisdom of God during Fr. Marinko’s teaching. We received answers to our questions and got other topics for meditation through simple and concrete examples from life, through the words of Holy Scripture, and the messages of Our Lady. We especially experienced the need to pray for the gift of love, the love of God, with simple words, with prayer of the heart: ‘Jesus, give us love. Give me love for this person who is so difficult for me to love. Jesus, give me your love, let me give it to others, to all those I will meet.’

Every evening we went to the program at the church of St. James and all night we could spend time with Jesus in adoration in the chapel at the retreat house. A great example for us was the children. For example, six year old Jazep came with his parents and every night at 3am he arrived with his father to adore Jesus, and on the next day he always asked with great joy, ‘Father, can I go with you again tonight?’ This seminar showed us that everybody can fast. From the little children who were six to ten years old we learned to fast with joy and from the oldest participants we learned to receive everything with a smile, just as they were doing every day.DSC02566

We thank God for these days and we pray that all the seeds which the Lord was sowing in our hearts will grow and bring forth fruit. Let them grow into great trees, under which our neighbours can find refreshment, peace and hope.

Our short testimonies:

‘I recognize that with a small piece of bread I can be filled up. I understood the value of forgiveness and how important it is to pray for a person who has hurt me. During the seminar I often went out and I understood that God is great like the mountains in Medjugorje and he warms like the sun there.’ (Anna)

‘Now I understand what is the most important in life. It is love, love, love. With the help of God and with help of Our Lady we can do a lot.’ (Anita)

With prayer, pilgrims from Latvia, Lithuania, Russia

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