The 25th Youth festival in Medjugorje finished with Holy Mass on Cross Mountain

date: 07.08.2014.

The 25th International Youth Festival that began on Thursday, July 31, 2014 finished on Wednesday, August 6 with Holy Mass of Thanksgiving celebrated by Fr. Marinko Sakota, the parish priest of Medjugorje parish. The Youth Festival was held under the theme: “Behold, your Mother”. Dozens of thousands of young people from more than 60 countries gathered in Medjugorje this year. The Youth Festival began with the Morning Prayer at 9 a.m. and continued with the lectures, testimonies and songs until noon. After the recess, programme would begin again at 4 p.m. and the evening prayer programme would follow. The central part of every day was Holy Mass at 7 p.m. The opening Holy Mass on Thursday, July 31, was celebrated by Dr.Fr. Miljenko Steko, the Provincial of Herzegovina Franciscan Province. All other nights, the main celebrants were the newly ordained priests: Fr. Tomislav Zubac, Fr. Hrvoje MIletic, Fr. Goran Azinovic, Fr. Bojan Rizvan, Fr. Dario Galic and the homilies were given by Fr. Ante Vuckovic. The largest number of priests concelebrating was on Monday, when 534 of them were there.

On Saturday, August 2, after the evening Holy Mass, the procession outside the altar was held while the traditional procession around the parish was not held this time. On Sunday, August 3, young people from Cenacolo community held their theatre spectacle Creo and the movie about Fr. Slavko and history of the Youth Festival was shown.

The priests from all continents were available for the confessions throughout the whoe time of the Festival. All of these events were more beautiful and special due to the singing and orchestra of the International Choir conducted by Prof. Damir Bunoza where young people from 24 countries played and sang. The Rosary and prayers of the faithful were said in 25 languages, while the whole Festival was simultaneously translated in 17 languages and directly broadcasted by many radio stations and Internet portals. (foto); (video)