To be honest at the begining I didn´t know if this article should be written in Czech or English language. Finally I decided to write it in English, because I want to maintain tradition that all articles on my web are only in English. Don´t worry I try to use easy English. Maybe little bit „slang“
Believe it or not – really long, long time I decided where to start and how should I exactly describe the atmosphere of this unique pilgrimage of Men. Everything started eleven years ago in 2007 – Pavel Heinz and Petr Švach decided to organize pilgrimage from Loučka to Svatý Hostýn exclusively for men – one day before very important religious holiday Jesus Christ the King. It means at the end of November. Nobody knew neighter weather conditions nor how long does it exactly take to get from Loučka to Sv. Hostýn. There were nine brave men who had a courage to go (Pavel Heinz, Petr Švach, Pavel Maček, Petr Pavelka, Josef Kolařík, Vilém Kolařík, Vladimír Kořenek, Roman Hlavička a Petr Daďa called Fidel). This first pilgrimage evokes or bring back memories of my shoes which weren´t fit for hiking and I really suffered a lot at the end. But I don´t want to complain about my shoes.
I would like to express why it is so important to attend journey like this. Not only this 12th men pilgrimage, but all kinds of pilgrim’s journeys. In my humble opinion Tomas Strogan (who celebrated holy mass in basilica) explained core of the peregrination very accurately like an affect of our spirit – it means some kind of movement towards God, Jesus and Holy Spirit. In case that this „affect of our spirit“ is missing we cannot call this journey a pilgrimage, but it is only walk or some kind of walking trip.
I can certainly write about journey which is always interesting and fabulous. You can go alone, you can go with a friend or you can even meet new people. Of course you can put your thoughts in order etc., etc. There is a lot of time to do what is really important for you at this moment. Most of us try to sacrifice all suffering connected with this journey for our significant others especially for our wives children and parrents.
This pilgrimage starts in Loučka at 6:00 am where our priest and spiritual father Jan Múčka gives us his blessing. There are usually at about 65 participants at the very beginning. Next stop is at four kilometers distance at the place called „Chladná studna“. Here we start to pray Holy Rosary and every pilgrim gets an intention which is written on a piece of paper by our parishioners. Then we continue to Vizovice castle where Vilém Kolařík offers us some refreshment. We continue to Slušovice, Hrobice ( we meet our teacher Peter Horák there ), Kašava and Vlčková where the tasty lunch is prepared in the restaurant Pod Rablinů. After lunch we keep on walking directly to Hostýn through forest. There are at about five stops during this way where we pray particular parts of Holy Rosary and listen to some stories from the book for men writen by Richard Rohr. Here we certainly eat and drink tea, water or shot of slivovitz. At the end of our journey we reach basilica and stay here in a quiet prayer. There is also have one unwriten rule there, when we are in basilica all men sing chorale „Svatý Václave“ , But he most important thing is „Holy Mass“ which begins after dinner at the end of the great day. Our spiritual father Tomas Strogan who accompanies us almost from the begining is always well prepared for preaching and he ussually encourage us to go to confession after holy mass. Sometimes he confesses whole night.
In conclusion I would like to say THANK YOU to all who are responisble for this pilgrimage and I look forward to seeing all of „us“ next year 2019.
