After last year’s extremely successful family trip to the island of Prvić, this year we decided to join forces with the neighboring Šibenik branch and visit the Parish of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Vrpolje near Šibenik, i.e. the Diocesan Shrine of Our Lady of Vrpolje, which we did on Saturday, June 20th .

The kind host, the parish priest Don Ante Omazić, welcomed us and in the shade of the trees in front of the church, before the mass, he briefly introduced himself and spoke about the parish and the sanctuary. Don Ante, a child of emigration, grew up in Germany and in the seminary was a generational colleague of our spiritual father, Fr. Domagoj Runja, has been the parish priest of Vrpolje and the head of the sanctuary for the last 12 years. At the mass, we were joined by pilgrims, church singers and liturgical readers from the Parish of St. George the Martyr from Vojnić Sinjski, led by their priest Don Klement Radosoljić, so that the relatively small church was well filled and the mass was accompanied by harmonious singing.

In accordance with the Gospel of Matthew, our spiritual father, Fr. Domagoj, reminded us in his homily that the most important thing in our Christian life is to set priorities correctly, and the Gospel helps us in this: “Seek first the Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” And we burden ourselves so much with worries about tomorrow and the feeling that everything depends on us.

After the mass, our host, Don Ante, spoke about the parish community and the many challenges he faced upon arriving in this rather specific parish and sanctuary. He pointed out that at the beginning of his service, he often felt as if he were on a mission. But dedicated work, prayer, and the involvement of an increasing number of parishioners soon began to bear many fruits. The sanctuary has been renovated and expanded, and moving into the newly built parish house is planned for a few months. After we had the opportunity to see for ourselves the great effort that went into decorating the sanctuary, we said goodbye to the parish priest and the pilgrims and continued to the nearby restaurant “Vicko”.

Everyone who has ever passed through Vrpolje or lives between Šibenik and Split knows about the legendary restaurant “Torcida”, which only recently became Vicko. The change of name did not affect the quality of the food and service, so together with our Šibenik colleagues we treated our palates and in between bites we deepened our friendships and made plans for professional cooperation through pleasant conversations.

Prof. Dr. Sc. Ivica Grković, President of the Split branch of the HKLD