In these unfamiliar days of the sacred three days (The Triduum of the Paschal Mysteries) each of us is confined physically to our domestic spaces- which Anima hope can become tiny – domestic Churches in which we walk in the saving footsteps of the Lord.

We have collected a couple of resources for you to use during the quiet day that is Good Friday. We hope that you find them useful in this time.

Firstly our wonderful friend, Fr John Corrigan, resident priest in Port Fairy, Victoria and Assistant Parish Priest, has offered us a beautiful meditation. He has used the windows of his Church, St Patrick’s, in Port Fairy as a way to meditate on the passion of Christ. We have added a gallery photos of the windows below.

We also have a really insightful article by Sarah McDonald who has written about what the Domestic Church means and what it actually looks like. How this time of being house bound can help you cultivate it and then keep it once this virus moves on its merry way.

The Stations of Cross devotion has an ancient pedigree.  It began when Christians venerated this time of year by walking the actual route of Jesus on his Passion through Jerusalem, from Gethsemene to Golgotha.

As Christians spread out across the world- it no longer became possible for them to go to the Holy Land, so like us, they brought the Holy Land to their own streets or Churches.

During the pandemic shut-downs we too are pilgrims cut off from our familiar home Churches, but we can walk the Stations in our own backgardens or around our house.

Prepared by Bronia from our Anima team in Perth, is a down-loadable booklet based on 14 Scriptural Stations of the Cross.  These were devised by Pope Saint John Paul II to align with the  Passion narrative from the Gospel texts.   They were approved by Pope Benedict XVI for public or private use in 2007. (The Traditional Stations are also beautiful but differ slightly from these).

Accompanying these are some art-works which match each of the Scriptural Stations. 

Each of the Popes has provided his own meditations upon the Way of the Cross.

Particularly profound were the Stations of the Cross on Good Friday 2012, at which Pope Benedict reminded us that the Way of the Cross speaks particularly to each family (he could be addressing our worries in this time):

“Often does the journey become wearisome and difficult! Misunderstandings, conflicts, worry for the future of our children, sickness and problems of every kind. These days too, the situation of many families is made worse by the threat of unemployment and other negative effects of the economic crisis”

Pope Benedict April 2012

The Pope also reminded us that by travelling in deep spiritual union with all the Church in  the death of the “Son of God” each of us and our families can also realise in a bodily as well as spiritual way, that The Cross is the Tree of Life, which blossoms in new hope” God’s unbounded love and mercy

To finish we thought that the music of Bach’s St Matthews Passion would be an appt conclusion for this day.