Everett students reenact the passion of Christ

Published 9:39 pm Friday, April 2, 2010

EVERETT — Eighth-grade students at St. Mary Magdalen School participated in a school tradition on Good Friday.

The 35 students from Jenny Santijer’s and Lisa Spooner’s classes lead the living stations of the cross, an enactment of the passion of Jesus Christ in front of students, teachers and parishioners.

Music teacher Maureen McMurray directed the students, who enacted each of the 14 stations of the cross.

“They were a remarkable group this year,” McMurray said. “I think it’s a wonderful thing to have eighth-graders give a service to the rest of the community. They begin to show their leadership.”

Students at St. Mary Magdalen School learned about each of the stations of the cross on Fridays during the season of Lent, Sister Joanne McCauley, the school’s principal said. They study different plaques depicting each station and pray during this time.

In the first station, Christ is condemned to death. Stations that follow show Jesus carrying his heavy cross and then falling for the first time under the weight of the cross.

During the enactment, eighth-grade students began stations by saying “we adore you, o’ Christ, and we praise you.” Younger students and parishioners in the audience replied, “Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.”

They described the stations individually and in order and periodically asked those who were watching to pray or reflect upon their own lives. When Jesus fell for the first time, students were asked to think about something they need to work hard to overcome and ask God for courage.

Jesus meets his mother in the fourth station, receives help to carry the cross from Simon of Cyrene in the fifth station and is offered a cool cloth to wipe his face in the sixth station.

Jesus falls a second time, then a third time after meeting the women of Jerusalem. At the ninth station, students were asked if they had ever wanted to give up because an assignment was too hard or because they felt their parents were asking too much from them.

The tenth station depicts when Christ is ripped of his garments. He is nailed to cross and dies there. The final two stations are when the body of Jesus is taken down from the cross and is laid in the tomb.

Although the stations don’t change, each class of eighth-graders has added their own ideas to the living stations of the cross, McMurray said.

This year, eighth-grader Daniel Schwab built the cross used in the enactment. His classmate Steve Papagayo made a stand for the cross. Students included drum beats between the stations and carried Jesus, portrayed by student Keegan McAdam, from the church podium to the back of the church at the end of the enactment.

“I was very impressed not only with their portrayal of the stations but also with the maturity of the students participating,” said Teresa Guy, a mother of an eighth-grader who participated in the living stations of the cross. “I thought the whole service was a real blessing for me today. It was a very wonderful experience.”

The living stations of the cross is touching, Sister McCauley said.

“It’s nice that it ends with ‘This isn’t the end of the story,’” she said. “There’s always a statement to the effect that this was a sad day and a wonderful thing happened but an even more wonderful thing is on Easter Sunday, the resurrection.”

Amy Daybert: 425-339-3491, adaybert@heraldnet.com.