Church youth group re-enacts Stations of the Cross

By Paulina Uy

The Church of St. Michael the Archangel will be presenting a depiction of the Stations of the Cross on Good Friday.

The church’s youth group does this re-enactment every year.

“They depict the 14 different moments on Jesus’ journey from when he was condemned to death to when he was laid in his tomb,” said Tim Durkin, director of the production, about the Stations of the Cross production.

“There are 14 different parts broken up and each year on Good Friday, which is the Friday just before Easter, there is an adaptation put on by the youth of the parish and of the city of Belleville as well.”

“So they will go through 14 different stations and they depict them in what is called a tableau. They will do a pause in each position and what we try to incorporate a little bit as well are a few pieces of movement that can really showcase what exactly those different depictions are and how difficult they were for those that were part of it – Mary (Jesus’ mother), and those that were with her, for the crowd on what they would have been seeing, for the soldiers on what they would have done in Roman times 2,000 years ago, and of course, for Jesus as well, on what he went through.”

“It is re-enacting the passion of the Christ – the greatest love story of all times. It is the greatest miracle showing real love and it is the total gift of salvation,” said Silvana Loughheed, church youth co-ordinator.

“It is perfect love, harmony, and peace.”

Each year, Loughheed and her colleague Marilyn Woolven put together different events such as drop-in lunches and stopping by schools and they visit students who might be interested in acting.

They share the story of what is to be depicted and talk to students who want to be a part of the production.

The production could be something that might help someone find out a little more about themselves and it is important to show that to people during Good Friday, explained Durkin.

The performance is an important journey for the kids themselves in the group because everybody is at a different spot in their faith life – whether it be “Is there a God?” or “I would like to know more about Jesus Christ and what he went through,” and everything in between.

Loughheed basically chooses the script each year and the script differs in terms of approach as to how the story is told.

This year’s story focuses on the kingship of Jesus and the story could have a different perspective in the following years – from Mary’s perspective or St. Francis, etc.

When talking about Easter, Loughheed said that in all Christian churches, they celebrate the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and they start on Palm Sunday when Jesus entered Jerusalem and was led to being crucified.

“But we know Jesus is alive. We believe Jesus gave us the mass, himself, and the mass is the greatest prayer there is. At Easter, we celebrate the biggest celebration of the mass and we sing hallelujahs.”

“Jesus died selflessly for our sake. We need to be selfless in order to be loving. And the heart of a Christian belief is believing in his resurrection.”

There will be two performances on Holy Thursday at Nicholson Catholic College so that students and teachers and few people who cannot come to church on Friday will get the opportunity to see it.

Then there is Good Friday. There will be a church service at 11 a.m. prior to the main performance.

“We would love everybody to come – anybody of any faith denomination, anybody depending where they are in their faith journey – they are all welcome, and we would really love to see people come out and witness what the youth are putting on that day,” Durkin said.