Nowadays many non-Christians see Mother Mary as an expression of the feminine face of God, another form of the Great Mother, whom humans have worshipped for 25.000 years.
To Catholics Mother Mary is not a goddess yet more powerful than any goddess or any saint. She is hailed as the Mother of God and of all humans, the Queen of Heaven and Earth, the Queen of Peace, the Queen of the Apostles, the Queen of the Angels, the Seat of Wisdom, the Spouse of the Holy Spirit…. The Bible describes her as the "woman clothed in the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of 12 stars". (Revelation 12,1) She is said to share the throne of Christ and to have been "divinized", i.e. to have become inseparably one with God in complete "divine, mystical union", to have "inherited the kingdom of God" as Paul would call it. Hence Pope Benedikt XVI called her "divine mother" at Pope John Paul II’s funeral.
These pilgrimages are not about who is objectively right, but about who Mary is meant to be for you personally. And only you can determine that. We can help by taking you to her holy sites and sharing her public messages with you, but you will have to find out yourself what she is saying in your heart.
Throughout the centuries Mother Mary has been appearing to people across the globe. She started in the year A.D. 40 and never stopped. (See Roy Abraham Varghese’s book "God Sent: A History of the Accredited Apparitions of Mary") Since 1981 the Mother of God has been appearing daily in Medjugorje, Bosnia, which is now her most powerful holy place. There she has been affirming that she is the Mother of all humans of all faiths and that God is the King of all Religions. She says that all her children are equal in the eyes of God and his Mother, and that we are the ones who like to divide, not God. Hence all are welcomed to come before her, no matter what their faith and opinion.
On these pilgrimages we will go and see what the Queen of Heaven herself has said about who she is. For example in Rome she appeared in 1947 as Our Lady of the Revelation, saying: "I am the one that is of the Divine Trinity: daughter of the Father, the Mother of the Son, and Spouse and Temple of the Holy Spirit." (See: Brother Francis Mary Kalvelage, "Marian Shrines of Italy". A highly recommendable book in preparation for this pilgrimage.)
Our Lady of Revelation dressed in: Green: The Creative love of the Father;
White: The Saving Love of the Son; Pink: The Sanctifying Love of the Spirit
We will also discuss what the Blessed Mother has communicated in other apparitions, whose sites we will not get to. For example: in Paris in 1830, she demanded that a medal be crafted and widely distributed, depicting the cross of Jesus permanently anchored in her initial M and their two hearts underneath it, perfectly equal in size.
In Fatima, Portugal, she said: "Tell everybody that God gives graces through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Tell them to ask graces from her, and that the Heart of Jesus wishes to be venerated together with the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Ask them to plead for peace from the Immaculate Heart of Mary, for the Lord has confided the peace of the world to her." (See: "Our Lady of Fatima’s Peace Plan from Heaven" , p.10)
What to expect on these pilgrimages:
You will be on a traveling meditation retreat, a true pilgrimage, but with the modern comforts of public transportation and skipping the sack and ashes!
More than studying the power of the Blessed Mother in the course of Christian history, you will experience it for yourself through prayer and meditation at her holy places. You will be encouraged and supported in doing what she recommends for the sake of the earth and our own peace and illumination: First, to pray in silence, word, and song three times a day for one hour each. Second, to fast on bread and water on Wednesdays and Fridays or at least to make some kind of sacrifice and offering on those days. (e.g. no alcohol, meat or TV) Our Lady often says that prayer and fasting can stop wars and prevent natural catastrophes, not to mention the spiritual graces it confers.
Don’t worry about this. Experience shows that the rewards of answering her call to fast are so great that one often looks forward to the next opportunity. If you do these practices at her sacred shrines and on her holy mountains, you will surely receive many blessings from the Queen of Heaven and she will let you know herself who she is for you. She herself will be your guide
Read the rest to see what you get on the trips and where they gohttp://www.interfaithmarianpilgrimages.com/pages/pilgrimages.html