Jaimie Julia Winters March 19, 2024
About 1,000 of the faithful walked 10 miles from Linden to Newark last weekend stopping to do the Stations of the Cross and ending at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart for Mass and the Eucharist.
Instead of giving up sweets or coffee, the pilgrimage offers the faithful a way to concentrate on Jesus’ suffering and death during the Lenten season. For four years, areas Catholics have joined the 10-mile pilgrimage of prayer and meditation on the Stations of the Cross as a physical, spiritual, and personal challenge during Lent. This year it was held on Sunday, March 17, on a warm spring day.
Martyna who walked for the first time, said it was beautifully orchestrated and that she did the walk “to spend time with Jesus in a prayerful way.”
The walking pilgrimage began at St. Theresa of the Child Jesus Parish, (the archdiocesan Shrine of St. John Paul II) in Linden, and ended about four hours later at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, where Cardinal Joseph Tobin, C.Ss.R, Archbishop of Newark, celebrated Mass for the pilgrims and their family and friends.
The procession consisted of altar servers carrying a processional cross, pilgrims bearing relics of the Holy Cross, religious sisters and brothers, a 14-foot cross carried by pilgrims, parents with baby carriages, individuals in wheelchairs, a music ministry, and priests.
Michael Kosak led the pilgrims in song with his guitar along the route on the beautiful sunny day.
“We are just here praising the Lord and following the steps He took on his last day on earth,” Kosak told Jersey Catholic.
Stops were made along the route to pray the Stations of the Cross and to have lunch at St. Mary’s of the Assumption H.S. in Elizabeth on Broad Street. The pilgrims also rested at Wilson Park on the Elizabeth/ Newark border before making their final leg to the cathedral.
Fourth-time pilgrim Natalia Falkowski said the walk has been good preparation for Easter.
“It’s a good way for us to stop this Lenten season and walk the way of the cross like Jesus did; to kind of think about our life and where we are going on this earth,” Falkowski said.
In his homily, Cardinal Tobin said that the Stations of the Cross are in churches because when people could not make it to Jerusalem for a pilgrimage; they still wanted to walk together thinking of the Lord’s suffering and how “it’ came to be.
“The reason pilgrimages are so popular is because our lives begin in one place and end in another place, and we think and hope that it is not all without meaning. That there is a reason we are walking together towards something or better yet someone,” Cardinal Tobin said.
