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| Outdoor Stations of the Cross have been installed recently at St. Bernardette Parish on the exterior of the Religious Education Building at St. Bridget Church in Ridgeway. A formal blessing of the Stations will be done on Saturday, Sept. 14, following a 10 a.m. Mass at the church. A procession to the Stations will include the blessing and praying of the Stations. (Cathy Lins photo) |
RIDGEWAY — On Saturday, Sept. 14, on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, St. Bernadette Parish will have a formal blessing of its newly installed life-size outdoor Stations of the Cross.
The Stations are on the exterior of the Religious Education Building located at 106 North St. in Ridgeway.
Fr. Lawrence Zurek, OFM Conv, will join Fr. Steve Petrica, VF, pastor, in celebrating Mass at 10 a.m. at St. Bridget Church, followed by a procession to the Stations for their blessing, which will include praying the Stations.
Father Zurek is the administrator of the Basilica of St. Josaphat, which is a ministry of the Conventual Franciscans on the South Side of Milwaukee in the historic Lincoln Village neighborhood. It is one of 82 minor basilicas found in the United States.
Franciscan devotion
Father Petrica shared that there is a long association between the Franciscan order and the Stations of the Cross devotion, which they promote as a way to vicariously walk the actual Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem.
The original Via Dolorosa winds through Jerusalem, from the site where Pilate condemned Jesus to death to Mount Calvary and to the tomb where Jesus was buried.
Father Petrica said, “The Franciscans have historically been associated with the devotion and with the holy sites in Jerusalem. (Although it’s a different branch of the Franciscan family that maintains the holy sites.) It was customary for the blessing of Stations to be reserved to a Franciscan priest. That practice is no longer obligatory, but we chose to honor the historical connection. Father Zurek also reminded me that the Feast of the Holy Cross is when St. Francis received the Stigmata.