The Mountain of life..

Mt. Krizevac​

Medjugore​

This is a true little story of a father and two of his children…

A father and two of his young children a girl aged 9 and a boy of 10 went to climb Mount Krizevac one day. On the foot of the mountain, the father sat down and started to remove his shoes as he wanted to climb in his bare feet as a penance, as he sat down the children also sat down and started to remove their shoes, ,”you don’t have to take your shoes off” he said to the children the little boy replied “why not” the father explained to them in a simple way why he was doing it and because he thought their minds were too young to understand penance, he told them that he was doing it to copy Jesus as the mountain reminded him of the walk that Jesus took to Calvary and that Jesus suffered very much in that walk, so by him taking his shoes off and feeling a little pain, climbing the mountain that he in some way might ease the suffering of Jesus. The children listened as he talked and continued to take their shoes off “well said the young boy I would like to do that too, me too said the little girl “ the father said “ok well if your feet get too sore you can always put your shoes back on Jesus will understand”..
So off they set walking and praying, coming to the first station the father explained to the children the meaning of the station and the prayers associated with it .they continued on up the mountain stopping and praying at each of the stations, half way up the mountain the fathers feet were getting sore as his toes seemed to be getting stubbed on every rock, are you ok he said to the children, were fine daddy they replied but it is hard, feeling that he should encourage them he was prompted to start telling them a story as they climbed, well children he said life can be sore you see if we look at this mountain as we climb we can imagine that the mountain is our life, so when we first set off we had a choice we could have kept our shoes on and climbed comfortably but we didn’t, we decided to start our journey with Jesus, now in doing so we made the right decision but we also knew that by following Jesus it would not be easy ,”why is it not easy asked the little girl” well love he said in this life of ours there are people who don’t believe that Jesus is real, so as we walk with him sometimes they will make fun of you, but don’t be afraid of that because Jesus will always be at your side to give you strength..So on they went the father was really feeling the pain now and had to stop, so looking for somewhere to rest his feet he spotted a little flat piece of soil and rested his sore and bruised toes, sit down a while he said to the children, as they sat he said well children we can also look at this part of our journey as a stopping point, you see as we climbed we had big stones and sharp stones to get over, we could look at them as being life’s hurdles they were hard to get over but get over them we did, a bit like your school work or fights with your friends, if we walk with Jesus he helps us over every big stone and if you look down now you will see that after every stone Jesus has given us a nice soft landing to rest.
Now we have a decision as you get older you too will have many decisions, do we turn back down the mountain and give up or do we rest with Jesus for a while and continue to walk with him.”I think we should keep going the children agreed we don’t want to let Jesus down they said”. The father was proud of their reply and very inspired, well he said with a smile this is the part of the mountain of life when your poor father has got old and tired, Jesus is asking you to help your father get to the top, the boy reached his hand out and said do you want your shoes. The father laughed and said not yet, as they approached the top of the mountain the little girl got very excited, "I can see the top daddy" yes said the father we are nearly there but listen this is the part of your life when you can see the end and you are so close, you must not get too excited because if you look around you it’s very very high and if you do not keep looking at Jesus and get distracted you might easily fall..

They reached the top of the mountain and sat by the Cross, well children we did it “yes we did didn’t we daddy they said” yes he said you have reached your goal...The little girl looked at him a bit confused “what do you mean daddy”, well said the father you see I have been trying to tell you the mountain was your life the climb all the challenges that you will have to overcome and now finally you have reached the cross, the cross is where Jesus died for you so that you can enter heaven so when you walk in your life no matter how hard it be if you keep focused on Jesus he will always lead you to heaven, he put his hands on their little faces and said never lose sight of your goal…

 

Thank you Padraig the boy in the story is turning 30 this july and the girl 29 I might remind them that there Dad is now at the resting point of the mountain and needs a little hand to move forward...prayers appreciated