Good Friday (April 14 this year) focuses on Jesus’ crucifixion and death. At St. Barnabas, we make a mini-pilgrimage around fourteen “stations of the cross,” pictures that recall events of Jesus’ last day. This practice began centuries ago as people who had visited Jerusalem returned to Europe and tried to convey a sense of what it was like to visit the holy sites there, in particular the “via dolorosa” or the “way of sorrow” along which Jesus was led to be crucified. Pilgrims who were unable to trace the footsteps of Jesus in Jerusalem could re-enact this pilgrimage through the stations of the cross. In the Good Friday liturgy, Christians ponder the great mystery that the almighty God, who created and continually sustains the world, somehow became human and died — for all of us and for our sins. What does that mean? Come and see.
