Pilgrimage Part 8 cont- Cross Mountain

Yesterday, 12th July, we set off for Cross Mountain. This hill is in the opposite direction to Apparition Hill but is much higher. The path up the hill is covered with the same rocky terrain as Apparition Hill. We caught a taxi there because we didn’t want to tire ourselves out before we even started. Five of us are between the ages of 65 and 75. Apparition Hill was difficult, but Cross Mountain was to prove much more difficult. Instead of 5 decades of the Rosary, there were 15 Stations of the Cross,but we made it.

This was a different story and a much bigger challenge. Other people joined our little group (including “Moses” ) and we ended up with 12!! To make it worse, 2 of us had badly swollen legs (probably a result of our hectic schedule over past few weeks) but they desperately wanted to try to do it for our dear Lord – to offer it all up Him and to pray for our Prayer Group intentions. So off we went in fear and trepidation.

We used the prayers and the readings from the little booklet written by Fr Slavko for the Stations of the Cross. The stations were distanced further apart than the Rosary Mysteries on Apparition Hill.

I thought we would never get there. The young just leaped over the rocks and stones while we hobbled and tried to keep our balance.

Between the 13th and 14th Stations, there was a rock memorial for Fr Slavko, marking the spot where he died. (See post on. 12 July).

At the top was a huge, white Cross erected in 1933. The inscription on it was:  33-1933. Apparently it was a Jubilee year and it was erected to celebrate 1900 years since Jesus’ death on the Cross.

It is interesting that it is so big. Also the old church was rebuilt in the 1930’s – the present St James Church. It was a tiny village and the church seemed way too big for what was needed. Was it Providence that was preparing for the time when it would be needed?

While we were up there the bells of the church down below chimed for the evening Mass. It was so loud and clear and seemed to be magnified by the hills. Medjugorje seemed to be nestled in the hills, as at Garabandal; even the amphitheatre effect was there.

We stayed a while for photos, a rest and to pray for all our intentions.

We headed back. Some found going down more difficult than going up – especially on the knees. We finally made it down. It took much longer than we expected – nearly 4 hours. We were told 2.5 hours. Needless to say our youngsters were down a good half hour before us.

We thanked God for getting us down safe. We thought that it was quite miraculous that the person in our group with the swollen feet had made it! She could not walk the day before and was in a bad way, but she so wanted to try… She thought that if she got stuck she would just sit down and wait for us to come back.