Faithful walk ‘the steps to Jerusalem’
Published 7:01 am Sunday, April 16, 2017
- Father James Steffes leads a prayer outside St. Augustine’s Catholic Church before starting out on procession to St. Edwards Catholic Church Friday to celebrate Good Friday. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
“ … Then he handed him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, and carrying the cross himself he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull, in Hebrew, Golgotha.’” — John 19: 6, 16-17.
Against overcast skies — an appropriate setting for a meditative Good Friday — people of faith gathered at St. Augustine Catholic Church in Austin to carry the cross.
A procession of Catholic faithful begin their walk celebrating Good Friday to St. Edwards Catholic Church from St. Augustine’s Catholic Church.
Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
Young and old came to take turns carrying the cross, while others picked up the smaller crosses that marked the Stations of the Cross, ending at St. Edwards, where a Good Friday service was held.
The walk, in its sixth year at St. Augustine, is a way to “take a pilgrimage, to walk with Jesus in Jerusalem … to meditate on the passion of our Lord,” said Father James Steffes, pastor at both St. Augustine and St. Edwards.
About 30 joined him for the walk; some for the first time. Heidi Becker and her daughter, Molly, 5, were interested “because I wanted the traditional,” she said.
Elizabeth Lawton attended again, after taking previous walks. She said the local journey helped her to focus on the path Jesus took, “and think about what Jesus went through,” she said.
Steffes agreed, adding his thoughts were on “the incredible love Jesus had for us in his enduringness.”
