During the recently concluded Lenten season, members of the Archbishop Carroll community gathered informally after school on Fridays to pray the Stations of the Cross in the Dominic L. Coyle Memorial Garden, which includes depictions of each of the stations along the main driveway to the school.
Organized and led by Mr. John Woehlcke, an English teacher, the stations were prayed by a handful of people on both March 8 and March 22. His effort was the first in recent memory to gather members of the community outside of school hours to mark the tradition. Carroll students always are led during Lent to pray the Stations of the Cross during school hours.
“It’s long been a tradition that on Fridays Catholics will often pray the Stations of the Cross as just a reminder of Jesus’s sacrifice and love for us,” said Mr. Woehlcke.
The Stations of the Cross is a solemn devotion that commemorates Jesus Christ’s final journey to his crucifixion. It consists of 14 stations, each representing a specific event during Christ’s Passion, from his condemnation to his burial. In the Coyle garden, dedicated to the memory of a student who died in 2016, those stations are rendered on 14 stone monuments.
The Stations of the Cross, Mr. Woehlcke said, “puts into context what Christ did for all of us.”
Mr. Eric Tamney, the director of Campus Ministry, echoed Mr. Woehlcke’s sentiments, emphasizing the profound impact of understanding Christ’s sacrifice.
“The Stations of the Cross are important to me because one of the things that you begin to understand as you journey into your faith life and as you learn about the faith is that part of the process of developing a relationship with Christ and learning to love Him begins in the understanding of how much he did for us by dying on the cross,” said Mr. Tamney.
Senior Jocelyn Welsh talked about why the Stations of the Cross is important to her.
“I feel like it is important to me because it goes to show that Jesus did something he did not have to do for us when he died,” said Welsh.
Drawing upon the teachings of St. Ignatius, Mr. Tamney highlighted the significance of knowing Christ before one can truly love Him.
“Becoming intimately familiar with the gift of his life that He gave us on the cross helps us to understand just how much He loves us,” said Mr. Tamney. “It helps us to assume a posture of one who recognizes what Christ has done for us. We now are asking ourselves what must we do in response.”
