The Parish of St. Mary in Norwalk, Connecticut, marked Good Friday with the renewal of a long-standing tradition, the procession of the dead Christ through the streets with Our Lady of Sorrows following. This procession is similar to those done throughout southern Europe and Latin America, and is reminiscent of Eastern Rite liturgical uses on the night of Good Friday.
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This year, the procession took a new direction in many ways. It began with prayers before the image in Spanish. Then a full church of more than 400, representing all the ethnic communities in the parish followed the procession. It took a new route, not only traveling along the main thoroughfare on which the church sits, but through some modern residential developments.
A band set the pace for those walking, and called out the residents along the route, many of whom had never seen a religious exercise of this kind.
Following the hour-long procession, the office of Compline was chanted by the Schola Cantorum of St. Mary’s Church, and the body was anointed and readied for burial, signified by covering it with a funeral pall.
Hundreds of people then kept an all-night watch at the tomb until 8 the next morning.
For more pictures, go to www.sthughofcluny.org.
Pictures from the rest of Holy Week will be posted in the next few days.
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