The COVID-19 pandemic may have us all sequestered in our homes around the world this Good Friday but the solemn observance of the Triduum continued despite cancelled vigils and closed churches. The Sisters Servants of the Visitation Bato Mission created beautiful frames for the image of our Lord to be placed in their rooms and the rooms of the children at the beginning of the health crisis. An outward reminder that they must look to Jesus and trust in HIM during this difficult time. Today they begin the Novena of the Divine Mercy as the world awaits the dawn of Easter and the joy of the Resurrection.
In Glen Ellyn the Petronille Parish community is making the Way of the Cross individually or with family while winding through the streets of town to visit each of the 14 "stations" set up on the lawns of volunteer parishioners. We are invited to walk, bike ride, run, or drive to each station all day and evening. The "social distancing" compliant Stations of the Cross has been a phenomenal success. Our home is the Fourth Station, Jesus Meets his Mother. We witnessed families, young and old, praying. Teens on bikes, runners, and moms pushing strollers praying. Drive, park-n-pray groups, walkers with earbuds and young families with prayer booklets. It is 9 pm and they are still coming to follow the candle lit "Way". The world has literally stopped because of the virus; a great four week pause. This new and very public Stations of the Cross is both an invitation and a moment of Catholic evangelization for our community. Why would all these people leave their homes to humbly enter into a memorial journey contemplating Jesus the Christ's last hours? Their faith in the promises of the Resurrection? A wish to enter into Jesus's suffering in this time of suffering around the world? We are now passing through a difficult journey around the world. Hope and the joy of Easter are tangible; We know He is Risen! and we will acclaim Alleluia!, yet we must pass through these days faithfully. Maybe they read Revelations 21:4-5: "....Behold I make all things new."
Blessed Triduum and Octave of Easter to All!