Catholic Cemeteries holding Stations of the Cross during Lent

For the fourth consecutive year, Catholic Cemeteries is offering the faithful an opportunity to commemorate Christ’s passion and death by praying the Stations of the Cross on most Wednesdays of Lent and on Good Friday. 

Although open to everyone, people who have lost loved ones during the past year are especially invited to attend as a way to pray for and memorialize those people, said Deacon Jim Tardy, outreach manager.

“It’s a healing walk for people who are still grieving,” he said. “They find (these services to be) a prayerful time that allows them to reflect on those they’ve lost and where they are in their own lives right now. This is to help them through their time of grief.”

The stations will be offered March 20 and 27, and April 3 and 10, at 6 p.m. in the Holy Angels Mausoleum at Resurrection Cemetery, 7800 W. Center Road in Omaha.

On Good Friday, the service will move outdoors to Calvary Cemetery, 7710 W. Center Road, at 3 p.m., where Deacon Tardy, along with others will carry a wooden cross as people walk the 1.7-mile route to pray before the 14 stations.

As a Lenten tradition, Catholic Cemeteries also places a “Cross of Hope” in the center of the Resurrection Cemetery’s mausoleum rotunda. On it people can nail their petitions and tributes to deceased loved ones to be prayed for during Lent and at the cemetery’s monthly memorial Mass April 4, he said.

“I’m always taken aback by the depth of spirituality of (the notes) posted on that cross,” Deacon Tardy said. “They can be very poignant.”

Deacon Tardy said participation in the services has grown, with numerous people returning each year. Last year more than 125 people attended on Good Friday, and participation in the Wednesday stations grew from week to week – from about 30 to nearly 100.