As students at Immaculate Conception grammar school, we would say the “Stations of the Cross” on Fridays during lent. I kind of liked them as a great diversion from the classroom. Like many of the pre-Vatican II devotions in the Catholic Church, this practice has lost its appeal and I sometimes wonder if younger people even know what those fourtreen paintings or bas-relief sculptures adorning the church walls are doing there.
The Passionist, a Roman Catholic monastic community commit their lives to keeping alive the memory of the Passion of Jesus and one of the ways they do this is to continue to encourage people coming to their retreat centers to join them on that short pilgrimage. Today in honor of Holy Week, Brother John Rockenbach, of the Passionist’s Mater Dolorosa Retreat Center near the Los Angles area leads a group on their journey. It’s a twenty-five minute trip, one that promises not only to inspire, but also to give you a chance to “retreat” to a much more peaceful and hopeful time. Happy Easter!
Dan O’Donnell, a layman has covenanted with the Chicago Community. In addition to the standard covenant, Dan promises to work at connecting all partners known and unknown, to a conscious following the the way of Jesus, the way of the cross which Dan believes transforms all failure, democratizing the human journey
We are a community of laymen and laywomen who, with vowed Passionists, seek to share in the charism of St. Paul of the Cross through prayer, ongoing spiritual formation, and proclamation of the message of Christ Crucified.
