On Good Friday, Christians remember the final hours of Jesus’ life through praying the Stations of the Cross. Our Senior Learning Community led our school through the fourteen stations, taking them on a physical journey around the school and church.
The fourteen stations that most people know and see in churches are based on Church Tradition. These Traditional Stations include events such as Jesus falling three times and having his face wiped by Veronica.
Our learners instead used the Scriptural Stations of the Cross, which allow the faithful to connect the events of Good Friday with what happens in the Gospels. The Scriptural Stations were first used by Saint John Paul II on Good Friday in 1991.
The fourteen Scriptural Stations that we followed were:
- Jesus in the Garden (Matthew 26:26-41)
- Jesus is betrayed by Judas (Mark 14:43-46)
- Jesus is condemned to Death (Luke 22:66-71)
- Jesus is denied by Peter (Matthew 26:69-75)
- Jesus is judged by Pontius Pilate (Mark 15:1-5, 15)
- Jesus is Scourged and Crowned with Thorns (John 19:1-3)
- Jesus carries his cross (John 19:6, 15-17)
- Jesus is helped by Simon of Cyrene (Mark 15:21)
- Jesus encounters the women of Jerusalem (Luke 23:27-31)
- Jesus is Crucified (Luke 23:33-34)
- Jesus speaks to the thief (Luke 23:39-43)
- Jesus speaks to his Mother (John 19:25-27)
- Jesus dies on the cross (Luke 23:44-46)
- Jesus is buried (Matthew 27:57-60)
Learners worked in groups to explore their piece of Scripture and what it meant for the lives of our children. They wrote a reflection on the message of the Scripture and developed a prayer that could burn in our hearts.
At every point in the journey from the front of the school to outside the church, we asked for God’s help, petitioning him to ‘Help us walk in his way’.