For Faith In Action: the Way of the Cross in New York (Part II)

This morning, our sons and I, along with thousands of others, participated in the Way of the Cross procession from the Basilica Cathedral of Saint James in Brooklyn across the Brooklyn Bridge, (see us all crossing the bridge?)  to Saint Peter's Roman Catholic Church in Lower Manhattan, the oldest Catholic parish in New York City. Along the way, we walked in silence, stopping only at several stations to pray sing and reflect. The procession was sponsored  by Communion and Liberation, a lay ecclesiastical movement. What follows are some of the reflections, song and chants we heard. Thanks to our 14-year-old for shooting most of these photos with our family camera.

Crux fidelis inter omnes, Arbor una nobilis: Nulla silva talem profert, Fronde, flore, germine, Dulce lignum, delces clavos, Dule Pondus sustinet.

 (Faithful Cross above all other. One and only noble tree. None in foliage, none in blossom none in fruit they peer may be; Dearest wood and dearest iron, Dearest weight is hung on thee)

"We cannot forget at what price we have been saved, every day. Sacrifice is not an objection  but is rather the root of the Resurrection; it is the possibility of a true life. The event that reoccurs here and now and, if it first and foremost a fact - a fact that you cannot reduce to nothing, that you cannot censor, that you cannot cancel - if it is first and foremost a fact, it is a fact for you, a fact of supreme interest to you. It is a fact for you!"  Msgr. Luigi Giussani

"We need the presence of God with us, Jesus every day. And Jesus, because of the sacrifice of His cross and because of His resurrection, dwells among us, every day. There will be noise on the bridge, possible confusion. It is the very noise and confusion of our city where we spend our days. We will need to desire great attention in order to follow Jesus and to fix our gaze on the event of His Passion. It is the very same attention that is needed to look at the event of His presence among us every day."  (From the procession's program) 

"Where charity and love prevail, There God is ever found; brought here together by Christ's love, by love are we thus bound."

As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul  longs for you, O God. My being thirsts for God, the living God. When can I go and see the face of God? My tears have been my food day and night, as they ask daily, "Where is your God?" Those times I recall as I pour out my soul, When I went in procession with the crowd,  I went with them to the house of God, Amid loud cries of thanksgiving, with the multitude keeping festival.Why are you downcast, my soul; why do you groan within me? Wait for God, whom I shall praise again, my savior and my God." (Psalm 42)

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"Why did He come?" He was nice and quiet in His Heaven, and He had no need of us. Why did He come, and why did the world come? You have to believe, my friend, that I, a nothing of a woman, have a certain importance. You have to believe that man and the creation of man - all the mystery, all the mysteries of man- had a certain importance.Otherwise, contrarywise, it was so simple, and over-with in no time. It was finished in advance. He had only not to create the world. and not to create man. That way, no more decline, no more fall, neither fall nor redemption. No more history at all, no more bother at all. All the world stays home. How great I must be, my friend, considering how I've displaced such a world, and troubled such a world, and such a great world, at that! And started such a tragic history! A God, my friend, God troubled Himself, God Sacrificed himself for me. That's Christianity." 

Charles Peguy, Veronique.