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Author: Jenny O'Brien Every year on Good Friday large numbers of Catholics gather in groups to remember the Passion of Christ by praying the Stations of the Cross. In Adelaide many people attend the Monastery at Glen Osmond or Sacred Heart College, Somerton Park, where the Stations are held outdoors.
The concept of following the steps of our Lord to Calvary arose very early in the Church’s history. There is even a tradition claiming that Mary herself visited the various sites in Jerusalem connected with her Son’s passion. There is written evidence that in the fourth century the most important sites were regularly visited by pilgrims, and as early as the fifth century St Petronius, the Bishop of Bologna in Italy, erected a complex of connected chapels in the Monastery of San Stefano representing these various sites in order to bring closer to home the shrines of Jerusalem. Author: Jenny O'Brien It was St Augustine who famously said, “We are an Easter people, and Alleluia is our song.” In more recent times, this statement was taken up by St Pope John Paul II who reminded his listeners that for Christians, Easter is not just an historical commemoration, but the most central reality in our faith. It affects our very identity and dictates the way we live our lives. Jesus, who died on the cross, an object of derision and failure, abandoned by almost all his followers, was raised to new life. Without the resurrection, the death of Jesus would have been pointless. With the resurrection, we can live secure in the knowledge that we have been set free from the slavery of sin and death, that the way to eternal life has been opened up for us.
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Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide
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