The Hill of Crosses...

The Hill of Crosses is 12 km north of the city of Šiauliai, in northern Lithuania. No one knows the exact origin of the hill but for more than 150 years the people have observed the practice of leaving crosses on the hill. Some think the first crosses were placed on the former Jurgaičiai or Domantai hill fort after the 1831 Uprising. Over the years, crosses have been joined by giant crucifixes, by statues of Lithuanian patriots, statues of the Virgin Mary and thousands of smaller religious artifacts such as rosaries.  They have been brought here by Catholic pilgrims, by Lutherans in the population of Lithuania, and by foreigners who come to stand, gaze, remember, and pray. The exact number of crosses is unknown, but some estimated it at about 55,000 in 1990 and more than double that number now.


<sup>I was intrigued by the hill of cross when I saw it on the The ABCs of Miscellany blog of Al Colver.  My good friend and mentor and Pastor, Charles Evanson, serves in Lithuania, and as I saw him in the photos of the blog, I began to understand some of what might be there on that hill of crosses.  It is a place where memories, both good and painful, find resolution.  Where hopes and dreams of reunion and reconciliation find hope.  Where desires and distance are met, both with loved ones here and those saints who have gone before us, with whom we await the blessed reunion day when Christ returns in His glory.  Where sins and regrets find answer and the repentant hearts of a wounded people find healing and peace....
 

The plaque there reads:</sup>

"The Hill of Crosses is a unique place in terms of both its scale and its history. At present some 200,000 crosses of various sizes adorn the hill. By continually putting up crosses there people express their devotion to Christ, pray for his help and mercy, and identify Lithuania as a Christian land. The site is a reflection of the nation's spontaneous religiousness and is probably the place in Lithuania that is most often visited by pilgrims today. The Hill of Crosses gained immense significance in the lives of Lithuanian believers during the Soviet era as a sign of resistance to the totalitarian regime. After the re-establishment of independence new life has been breathed into the Hill of Crosses and it has become a symbol of the entire nation's unshakeable faith, its past suffering and hope. The Hill of Crosses gained fame throughout the world on 7 September 1993 when Pope John Paul II visited it and celebrated the Holy Mass for 100,000 people who gathered there. In 1994 a cross was put up on the site using the crucifix that Pope John Paul II gave to Lithuania. The cross blessed by Pope Benedict XVI was added in 2006. At the foot of the Hill of Crosses stands a Franciscan monastery built with the encouragement of Pope John Paul II and consecrated in 2000. The Feast of the Hill of Crosses, reinstated in 1997, draws large crowds each year on the last Sunday of July."


We have a wall of crosses in our Narthex.  People have picked them up from travel, from the homes of loved ones now deceased, from deployments to the Middle East, from stores, and made themselves.  It remains a popular place in our facility.  People new to our parish and those who have been there forever come to stand and gaze, think, remember, and pray.  It is not nearly so grand, but majestic in its own way as the cross always is.  What a blessed image that points us to the the very purpose of our Lord's coming and the very center of the Church's proclamation.  The wood of the manger is not long remembered but then it becomes the wood of the cross and this will never be forgotten...