Zagreb, (IKA) – Pope Benedict XVI’s homily on Ban Jelačić Square at the Prayer Vigil with young people was followed by the Prayer of the Faithful, Eucharistic Adoration and Eucharistic Blessing. The Blessed Sacrament in an eighteenth-century monstrance was carried from the treasury of the cathedral in a procession. All those assembled, led by the Pope in prayer and silence, participated in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, after which it was brought to the chapel behind the altar and will be exposed in the Church of the Wounded Jesus for personal adoration and prayer.
The Pope then prayed before the image of Our Lady of the Stone Gate, adorning it with a personal gift, a rosary. The young people presented the Holy Father with a traditional Croatian instrument, a tamburitza. “Dear Holy Father, for centuries the tamburitza has absorbed, expressed and preserved the beauty of the Croatian soul. Its tones speak of events of joy and suffering, the rapture of meeting and the pain of parting, gratitude for the gifts of the world and yearning for those of heaven. We present this tamburitza to you in gratitude and joy that we are together and that we were able to encounter the Lord, hear his Word, worship and glorify Him. Because of your presence with us, the strings of our lives are playing a new melody today of heaven and Christian hope. With this instrument, accept our enthusiasm and may it always remind you of our unity in prayer with you and our prayers for you,” said the young people presenting this gift.
Following the Vigil with the young people, the Pope rode in the Popemobile through the square in front of the Zagreb cathedral, where a crowd had assembled, and then continued to the Apostolic Nunciature at Ksaver.