Under a beating sun in a cloudless sky, more than 100 parishioners looped the parking lot at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church in an outdoor Good Friday observance of Jesus’ last hours known as Stations of the Cross.
“We’re celebrating Jesus,” said Margarita Ortiz, of Dalton, Ga. “We’re remembering a long time ago when Jesus was crucified.”
Sister Celia Sanchez led the ceremony that started in the church sanctuary with participants holding candles and a small statue of Jesus on a wooden cross.
After several prayers, the crowd sang songs in Spanish as participants left the building and walked into the parking lot. There they stopped at various points, marking the steps Jesus Christ took across the streets of Jerusalem more than 2,000 years ago.
The words “La palabra de dios es siempre antigua y siempre de nueva” (the word of God is always ancient and always new) came over the loudspeaker as the crowd moved from station to station.
“They’re walking the way of the cross from judgment to crucifixion and burial,” said the Rev. Jim Vick, the senior pastor at OLPH.
It’s a spiritual journey, he said. The goal is to get into the mind of Christ, to experience his passion, he said.
“It’s about understanding how much God loves us,” Mr. Vick said.
The Stations of the Cross walk, which generally includes about 14 stops, was begun around the 14th century when people no longer could make pilgrimages to the Holy Land to mark Christ’s last hours.
In the crowd on Friday, Iris de Leon stepped from station to station, watching children scamper behind the crowd.
“It’s important to remember the death and resurrection of Jesus,” she said in Spanish. “It’s very important for the family to come together during this holiday.”
Working hard to keep up but smiling nonetheless, Jesus Trinidad maneuvered from station to station with his cane. He said making the symbolic pilgrimage annually marked his love for Christ.
“It reminds me of the pain he suffered and the transition of that pain into his resurrection,” he said in Spanish.
Mr. Trinidad immigrated to the United States from his home in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, in 1992.
Though the crowds are much larger at the Good Friday and Easter holiday events in his home country, Mr. Trinidad said it is the faith that matters. A comparatively small group like that Friday in East Ridge is no less faithful than the masses in Santo Domingo, he said.
