San Giovanni Rotondo & Medjugorje

With Group Coordinator : Linda Repici

and Spiritual Director: Fr. Pio Maria, CFR

 September 10-19, 2008 ~ $2,209 per person from Newark

Padre Pio's body to be exhumed, venerated : The body of Padre Pio will be exhumed and exposed for public veneration during the coming year, the local archbishop has announced. www.pilgrimages.com/padrepio

YOUR TRIP INCLUDES:

  Round-trip air from Newark

  8 nights in accommodations as follows: (or similar)

      Sept 11-13:   San Giovanni Rotondo – Hotel Savoia Regency

      Sept 13-14:     Overnight Ferry to Dubrovnik

      Sept 14-19:    Centrally located home, Medjugorje

  Breakfast and dinner daily

  Transportation by air-conditioned motor coach

  Guided tours and admission fees

  Hotel and ferry taxes and service charges

  Mass daily

  Baggage handling

  Flight bag & portfolio of all travel documents

Not Included: Lunches, Beverages with dinners, Airport tax 

approximately $300-400, Travel Insurance optional at $129-$165.

Tips to your guide & driver (Euro 6-8 per day). Items of a personal nature. Add-on airfare from your hometown

( see special rates at Add-on Airfares www.206tours.com/addon )   

Sample Day by Day Itinerary:

Sep 10 - USA - Bari      

Depart USA for our overnight flights to Bari. Dinner and breakfast are served on board. 

Sep 11– Arrive Transfer Bari Airport / Hotel in San Giovanni Rotondo

Today you begin your visit to San Giovanni Rotondo.  During this period Padre Pio’s body is scheduled to be displayed for veneration.  The Shrine of Padre Pio in San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy, is the second-most visited Catholic shrine in the world. It centers around the tomb of Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, a Capuchin friar, priest and mystic known for his devotion to God, supernatural gifts, and the stigmata. He died in 1968 and was declared a saint in 2002. The shrine centers around Padre Pio's tomb, which is inside the Church of Our Lady of Grace (Santa Maria delle Grazie), where we will celebrate mass. You can also see his cell, his confessional and the crucifix from which he received the stigmata.  The shrine includes The Way of the Cross on the hillside above, regular processions, and an English-speaking pilgrim's office. Dinner and overnight at your hotel.

Sep 12 - San Giovanni Rotondo

After celebrating Mass at the tomb of Padre Pio, we tour the sanctuary, see the old church and the crucifix from which he received the stigmata in 1918. We will have an opportunity to view his exhumed body (through September 2009). You will see the confessional where Padre Pio spent innumerable hours with a multitude of pilgrims, directing them on their journey toward God. In the afternoon, we will tour the house of Mary Pyle, who was born to a wealthy Presbyterian family in Morristown, NJ. Mary Pyle traveled Europe and converted to Catholicism.  On a visit to San Giovanni Rotondo, Padre Pio asked Mary to stay in San Giovanni to receive the English speaking pilgrims.  She was obedient to his request and spent the remainder of her life in San Giovanni.  

Sep 13 – Overnight Ferry from Bari to Dubrovnik

This morning we will tour the hospital built by Padre Pio and celebrate mass at the hospital chapel.  Padre Pio named the hospital La Casa Sollievo Della Sofferenza (Home for the Relief of Suffering).  You will have free time once again to venerate St. Padre Pio’s body before departing San Giovanni Rotondo for the Bari Coastline. The ferry departs Tuesday at 10.00 pm from Bari and arrives the following morning at 7.00 am in Dubrovnik.

Sep 14-18 – Arrival in Dubrovnik - Medjugorje 

Experience the beauty and peace of this simple village. During your stay in Medjugorje you will have the opportunity to share faith with pilgrims from all over the world. Your trip in Medjugorje is meant to provide you with time for a personal retreat. As such, your time in Medjugorje is not designed to be a “tour”, but rather to provide you with time to pray, reflect, and explore on your own as you feel called. On arrival, you will have an orientation tour after which a representative of 206 Tours will be available should you have any questions or requests, however, you may not have a guide with you throughout your stay. Daily Mass in English, as well as English confessions are available at St. James Church.  
 

Here are some of the activities you'll be sharing with our fellow pilgrims: Each morning at 10am we assemble at St James Church for the English-language Mass (Feast days and Sundays English Mass is at Noon). Follow the path up Apparition Hill where the visionaries first encountered Our Lady while praying Our Lady’s rosary. Touch and pray before the cross that commemorates the spot where Mary first appeared to the visionaries.  

Each evening at 5pm or 6pm daylight savings time, we will join the villagers and pilgrims to pray the rosary. The apparition takes place at 5:40pm. After mass on Tuesdays and Saturdays there is Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and on Fridays Veneration of the Cross in the Church. Each evening during Croatian Mass, there is the Blessing of the Sick and blessing of the items you have with you.

Our guide will arrange meetings with the visionaries at their own homes provided that they are in Medjugorje during your trip, and pending their availability. We will have the opportunity to climb Krizevac Mountain, where in 1933 the villagers built a 30' high cross on the anniversary of Jesus' crucifixion. We will pray the Mary’s Way of the Cross during our climb.  Visit and pray at "Blue Cross", which is a place of great healings and graces - a very special place at the base of Apparition Hill.

We will visit the Oasis of Peace, which has an incredible 24-hour Adoration Chapel, and the Community of Cenacolo. 

Sep 19 - Medjugorje - USA     

After an early breakfast and heartfelt farewells, we leave by motor coach for Dubrovnik Airport (Spilt or Sarajevo) for return flights home.

Please contact us with any questions or for additional information:

                            Linda Repici                                                     Kristin Shea

                       Tel. (732) 674-8392                -or-                    Tel. (631) 361-4644

                     lmrepici@hwmail.net                                      Kristin@206tours.com