Easter ritual brings Jesus story to life

Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” made Jesus’ final hours real for millions of moviegoers this year.

For some parishioners of St. Gabriel’s Catholic Church in Winterport and St. Matthew’s Catholic Church in Hampden, the time spent during Lent in a centuries-old ritual called Stations of the Cross has made the walk toward Crucifixion just as intimate.

They said it helps them connect emotionally with the drama and to understand that the events of Easter are an integral part of the sacrifice on the cross, not simply a preface.

“The story of the Passion is what our Christianity is all about,” said Pat Simpson, 73, of Hampden. “Having it told from Christ’s point of view makes it more awesome.”

Simpson has been a parish member for 42 years. She said the way her pastor, the Rev. Bob Vaillancourt, has chosen to conduct the services devoted to the Stations of the Cross has “touched my soul.”

Each year between Ash Wednesday and Easter, millions of Christians contemplate 14 events, or stations, describing the Crucifixion in the New Testament.

References to it adorn the sanctuary walls of nearly every Roman Catholic and Episcopal church in the United States.

In some churches, they are mosaics in the walls. In others, they are paintings.

In most, however, they are mass-produced, three-dimensional ceramic or wooden plaques that sometimes pale in comparison to the stained-glass windows they often rest between.

St. Gabriel’s in Winterport is a small white church built in the 1850s on a small rise above the Penobscot River.

Typically, 30 worshippers attended the Friday night Masses followed by Stations of the Cross during Lent this year, said Vaillancourt. The priest is pastor of the Winterport church and St. Matthew’s in Hampden, built in the late 1960s. This year, the services alternated between the two churches.

Making the suffering real for 21st century Christians, without the money of a movie star like Gibson, can be a challenge for clergy. Pre-Vatican II prayers sometimes did not connect churchgoers with Jesus the human being, but were focused on worshipping Christ, the son of God, in prayer and reflection.

Vaillancourt said last week that during the Lenten season he used different versions of Stations of the Cross, including one from the perspective of

Mary, Jesus’ mother. He also held an ecumenical prayer service with the Rev. Deb Hanson, pastor of Hampden Highlands United Methodist Church, and the Rev. Deborah Jenks, pastor of the Hampden Congregational Church, on Good Friday.

The roots of the Stations of the Cross can be traced to the first centuries of the modern era. The practice spread to monasteries throughout the Christian world as a way of imitating the pilgrim route in Jerusalem.

The number of stations varied greatly, ranging up to 37, but in the 18th century, the current 14 stations were established.

Maureen Dillane, 51, of Winterport said that she remembers praying the Stations of the Cross in a large church where she grew up. “We moved from pew to pew in a group and we just prayed,” she said. “This makes it come alive for me.”

Eric Rand and his family attend St. Gabriel’s even though they now live in Orrington.

The 45-year-old father of three teenage sons said that the storytelling style in praying the stations used by Vaillancourt helped parishioners learn about the culture Jesus lived in and how it influenced him, his disciples, the rabbis and the Roman rulers.

His son, Paul Rand, 15, said, “As he was reading the story of the Passion, I was thinking about what he’s saying and how it connects to my life, how I can change my life to better fit the church.”

Sennen Dillane-Warwick, 16, of Winterport said his time at the Friday night services “makes me think about what I’ve done over the past week and look ahead to the upcoming week. The way it’s been done this Lent has been really powerful.”