- Rosary and The Way
- Pilgrim Adventures
- Cross Mountain
Cross Mountain
PATH 6 — PILGRIM ADVENTURES
God was well aware of me and my humanness — well before I was even aware of Him
For me this climb was a personal struggle — physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. I want to be honest about that from the beginning, because I think it is the most important thing about this story.
It was 5:30 in the morning on a Thursday in September. Cool, comfortable. Still dark. We all gathered together for a group picture, flashlights in hand, an eagerness to get started on what each of us understood would be our individual journey up Mt. Krizevac.
THE ASCENT
The Rocks, the Dark, and the Word "Ridiculous"
It was probably better that it was still dark when we began. The flashlights showed only the footing directly in front of us — not the scale of what lay ahead. As I struggled over what I can only describe as boulders, I thought to myself: this is ridiculous. What did I get myself into?
I use the word ridiculous so much in daily life that my friend laughs when she hears it. And here I was, silently saying it over every rock on a Croatian mountain at dawn. How many times in our lives are we faced with a challenge that feels exactly like this — rocks and boulders in the way, and the question of why we ever started?
Phil, in the red shirt, was reading the meditation at each Station of the Cross as we climbed. Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory Be. It was a very humbling experience. Under normal conditions I do not believe I would have attempted a climb like this. Only by the grace of God was I able to keep moving.
THE SHIFT
Humanness Getting in the Way — Until Station Three
I should have been quicker to realize that God had this — that He was providing the grace for me to even be on this mountain. But I was so busy being in my own way that the struggle was very difficult.
Until the Third Station. Phil was reading the meditation of Jesus’ journey, and somehow my ears opened and heard the words. I realized: this is not about me. I need to focus on Jesus.
When I said the Our Father, the Glory Be, and the Hail Mary at that station, my footing got much easier. I moved to the next station with grace.
God was well aware of me and my humanness — well before I was even aware of Him.
THE DESCENT
The God Moment — Alone on the Mountain
We didn’t stay long at the top — maybe fifteen or twenty minutes. I sat for a few minutes, caught my breath, looked out at the view, said a quick prayer for my friends and family and their intentions. Then I got up to join the group at the back of the cross.
Someone was about to start the descent alone. I joined her so at least there would be two of us.
The journey down was just as difficult — steep in areas, hard on the knees, the terrain unrelenting. Eventually I heard the group behind me, but I never saw them. Only two people passed me, calling out: “I can smell the coffee.”
The person I had descended with decided to rest. The group caught up with her. I was alone.
THE GOD MOMENT
With exhaustion coming over me and being alone on the mountain, I cried out to Jesus with so much emotion — about His journey, and how sorry I was.
This is when I smelled fire in the woods. And then it disappeared.
I passed two women on the trail — local women, asking for help. I had nothing on me to give. I passed them with a smile. And eventually I came to the end of the path, and to my right there was an opening that led me out at Station One.
At dinner that evening I asked the woman who had passed me where she had come out. She told me: Station II. The rest of the group came out at Station III. Two interesting things became clear — first, the smell of fire that no one else had smelled. Second, the different stations and their significance to each of us.
THE STATION THAT FOUND ME
Station One — Resignation to Trials
For me, Station One represented “Resignation to Trials.”
Of course, I hadn’t been doing any of that on the way up. The whole climb had been resistance — to the terrain, to the discomfort, to the simple fact of the mountain itself. I know I need to work on this. That station named something true about me that I was not yet ready to name for myself.
The woman who descended with me came out at Station Two. What that meant for her, only she knows. Pilgrimage is particular that way — the same mountain, the same path, and each person arrives where they need to arrive. The rest of the group came out at Station Three.
I have thought about those three stations many times since. And I have come to believe that they were not random — that each of us was led to the station that carried the grace we most needed to receive, even if we did not yet understand what we were being given.
How many times in our lives are we faced with a challenge that feels like rocks and boulders making everything ridiculous? And how often is the shift as simple as this — stop making it about yourself, and start making it about Jesus?
THREE EXITS, THREE STATIONS
If the Mountain Sent You to a Station, Let It Lead You Further
The Stations of the Cross are not only walked on a mountain. They are prayed in churches, in shrines, in the quiet of a home. If one of these stations stirred something in you — on this mountain or in your own life — there are places on this site and in the world where you can go deeper into it.
Station I — Jesus Is Condemned
Innocent. Standing There.
This was my station — Resignation to Trials. At Lourdes, the High Stations hold this moment in art: Jesus standing there, innocent, condemned unfairly. I have looked at that image and recognized something in myself. Been there myself.
Lourdes →Station II — Jesus Takes Up His Cross
The Station She Found
The woman who descended with me came out here. What it meant for her, only she and God know. If this is your station — the willingness to take up what has been given to you — Garabandal, a place of quiet surrender and mystery, may speak to what you carry.
Garabandal →Station III — The First Fall
He Falls. He Gets Up.
The rest of the group came out here. The weight of the cross brings Jesus to his knees for the first time — and he rises. If you have fallen under something heavy and found the grace to continue, the Stations of the Cross path on this site walks that road with you.
Walk the Stations →I wish I had not been so exhausted on the way down to get more photographs of my surroundings. But I know God was with me every step of the way. That much I am certain of.
WHAT THE MOUNTAIN TAUGHT
The Virtue the Mountain Calls For
Resignation to Trials is not passivity. It is not giving up. It is the quiet decision to stop fighting the reality God has placed in front of you — to accept the mountain, accept the rocks, accept the exhaustion — and trust that grace is sufficient for the next step.
That shift happened for me at Station Three — when I stopped asking why and started praying. The footing got easier not because the mountain changed, but because I did.
The same pattern appeared again days later in the airports, dragging a suitcase through the fatigue of COVID, one terminal at a time. The mountain was still there. It had just changed shape.
Path 4 — Grow in Virtue
The Virtue of Fortitude and Perseverance
The Sorrowful Mysteries teach endurance, surrender, and the grace of continuing when everything in us wants to stop. If the mountain stirred something in you, this path goes deeper into what that virtue asks of us in daily life.
Grow in Virtue →