Procession of the Cross: Aylmer devout carry on

Lily Ryan

Parishioners from several Aylmer churches carried the cross on Good Friday as the holy days gather steam. Catholics observe a series of personal and devotional steps related to the honouring of Jesus as the messiah, Hebrew for the word saviour, promised to humans. Easter weekend, bookended by good Friday and Easter Sunday, is partway through these 93 days of Easter. Ahead of Lent is a time of reflection, Lent is a forty-day reflection period in which the devoted give up something they love. It ended April 17 this year, as the calendar turned over to Good Friday.

Fifty days after Easter, there is another devotional day. June 8 is Pentecostal Sunday this year and is celebrated as it marks the end of the time Jesus spent with his disciples after his miraculous overcoming of death during those Easter days.

During the Procession of the Cross as pictured here, the devout both deliberate on their own life burdens, how to live free of them and, generally, about the nature of death, rebirth, and life.

In Aylmer many of the churches collaborated. Processions left from St Medard in Dêschenes and St Paul in Old Aylmer. Masses and other services where held across the region, along with meals. Of note is that due to renovations at St Mark’s, a group hunger meal was held at Christ Church.