Walking from station to station in the church in Tolisa, the devotional texts of the Way of the Cross, authored by father Antun Volenik, were read by the animators, led by the Metropolitan Archbishop of Vrhbosna and the Apostolic Administrator of the Military Ordinariate in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Msgr. Tomo Vukšić.

Jesus accepts suffering

The archbishop then led the Holy Mass celebration with the local guardian OFM Marijo Jurić, director of the Archdiocesan Youth Pastoral Centre Ivan Pavao II, rev. Šimo Maršić and about 20 other priests.

In the homily, Msgr. Vukšić reflected on the importance and meaning of the Way of the Cross, which is dear to the Croatian people and gathers many believers. Saying that human feelings and compassion for Jesus' suffering and unjust condemnation are not enough to correctly understand the devotion of the Way of the Cross, the archbishop explained: "By performing this devotion, we believers do not honour suffering, which is not a value in itself, but is a passing challenge, trial - in the case of Jesus, a terrible suffering and a terrible test of faithfulness to God the Father. What the Christian community, while performing the Way of the Cross, actually celebrates, is Jesus' faithfulness to God's will. That is crucial. Jesus accepts suffering, not because it has any value in itself, but because the first value he follows is the will of God and faithfulness to the will of God, in spite of suffering, in the midst of suffering. Nothing can distract him from faithfulness to God's will and God's law. This is what we as his followers, who hope that his work of redemption and salvation will take root in our lives, imitate as we gather around this devotion. This is what the Christian community celebrates and honours while performing the Way of the Cross."

Faithfulness to the will of God

Emphasizing that Christians are called to respect the law of God with a joyful heart and a clear conscience, he called on the young people to take this piety into their lives with Jesus' faithfulness to the will of God on his Way of the Cross. Aware that everyone has some kind of way of the cross in their life, in the end he told the young people to pray to Jesus, faithful to the will of God, to bless each of them at each station of the cross, to always, despite setbacks, weaknesses and pain, get up and move on the way of own conversion and sanctification, on the way to eternity.

At the end, the pastoral associate of the Youth Pastoral Centre of the Posavina region rev. Ivan Dragičević thanked the youth for the response, the Archbishop for leading the Way of the Cross and the Holy Mass celebration, the animators and priests for the organization, the guard and the Franciscans who work in the Tolisa monastery for their hospitality.

The singing was animated by the Frama of Tolisa.

After refreshments, the young people continued the meeting with a tour of this magnificent monastery, which houses a valuable museum and a rich library.

As a reminder, the first Archdiocesan Way of the Cross for young people in the Archdiocese of Vrhbosna was held in 2019 in Rama. This is one of the activities of the Archdiocese's Centre for Youth Pastoral Care organized in cooperation with the Youth Council of the Archdiocese of Vrhbosna. It aims to gather young people and their leaders from the territory of the archdiocese in one place to participate in a spiritual program together.

Unfortunately, due to the 2020 pandemic, the Way of the Cross was postponed, in 2021, also due to measures against the coronavirus, it was held in the NCM chapel and was broadcast live via the Nedjelja.ba YouTube channel, while in 2022 it was held in Vitez.