In addition to the local parish priest OFM Niko Josić, about 15 priests concelebrated, among them the provincial of the Franciscan province of Bosna Srebrena, OFM Zdravko Dadić, who was once a guard and parish priest in Dubrave, and the dean of Brčko, OFM Damir Ivanović. At the beginning of the Holy Mass, OFM Niko greeted those present and thanked everyone who contributed in any way to the construction of the parish church.

After the readings from the scriptures and the proclamation of the Gospel, the Archbishop of Vrhobosna delivered an appropriate sermon. At the beginning, he emphasized that the basic thought of this celebration, inspired by the Word of God, should be the sentence: "You are the temple of God and the Lord dwells in you."

You are the temple of God!

"And everything that we materially build, erect, paint, sculptors make, hang in the church and stand as decoration, is exclusively in the service of this mentioned: 'You are the temple of God and the Lord dwells in you.' In the service of this, it is an ancient custom in the Catholic Church to erect visible temples where the living temples of God will gather. Thus, to put it figuratively, in this beautiful temple of God, which we will consecrate in a moment, several hundred living temples of God have already gathered willingly", Archbishop Tomo said.

Speaking about this temple in Dubrave and other temples in the Catholic Church, he said that they are not the result of human supremacy, arrogance, competition or the desire "to show off", but of "our respect for the Lord God, Jesus Christ our Saviour, to whom we wish in a visible way to make it possible that his word and his celebrated sacraments have a place in the beautiful temple and that we, listeners of the Word of God and celebrants of these sacraments, gather in these beautiful spaces."

Returning once again to the basic idea of the homily, Msgr. Vukšić emphasized that just as these visible temples, which are dedicated in honour of saints or persons of the Holy Trinity, are decorated with beautiful works of art, the building itself is a creation of the thoughts, minds and abilities of one of the artists, "we are also like living temples - creatures, the work of art of artists above all artists - the Lord God who created each of us, similar to himself".

We are all on the path to holiness

At the end, the archbishop of Vrhobosna explained the essence of consecration to the faithful: "In every consecrated altar in the world, according to the ancient tradition of our Church, the powers of saints and no one else are incorporated. Exclusively because the Holy of all Holiness resides in a dignified manner only in the company of saints. And all of us are just on our way to becoming that. We are called to conversion and to follow the examples of those who are embedded in the altar as our teachers and our examples to follow."

After the sermon, Msgr. Vukšić consecrated the parish and monastery churches and installed the relics of St. Margarita from Cortona in its altar. By the way, the Franciscan monastery in Dubrave, about 20 km away from Brčko, is the successor of the monastery that was founded in Skakava in the 14^th century and which is mentioned in lists of monasteries from 1385. In 1846, after the seat of the parish was moved from Skakava in Dubrave, a parish apartment was built there. In 1869, a new stone place of worship was built instead of the old wooden church.

In 1906, a new parish apartment was built, and in 1927, a new church. Since the church was demolished in the 1990’s, the construction of a new one began in 2002. The building of the new parish apartment was built in 1978, and in 1982 the monastery was founded as a revived community that once existed in Skakava. The monastery was renovated and expanded in 2002. Since 1983, it has housed the Šimun Gallery with around 80 valuable exhibits of various artistic styles. The Franciscan tradition, which is more than six centuries old, is preserved in the Gallery. In 1991, the parish of Dubrave had 6 490 Catholics, while at present there are about 1 600 permanent members. Another 1 400 of its believers live and work outside the parish. The parish consists of: Dubrave, Bijela, Blaževac, Drgovi Donji, Prijedor, Seonjaci and Skakavac, Gornji and Donji.