Br. Elijah Cirigliano, one of the monks at St. Vincent Archabbey/Monastery, wrote a dramatic musical presentation of the Way of the Cross. Next week, it will be performed in the Performing Arts Center (in the Carey Center) from March 6th through 9th. Br. Elijah invited eight students to stay for a couple days over spring break as guests of the monastery in order to pray and practice.

The Way of the Cross is an incredibly moving and prayerful presentation of the stations. Br. Elijah, an impressive pianist, will be playing piano and the St. Vincent Choral Ensemble will be singing the choral parts. Only eight students will be performing the actual stations. In the interest of making the stations as simple as possible, the only parts are Jesus, Mary, John, two centurions, and three multipurpose crowd members (as well as another monk making a guest appearance as Pilate). It is impossible to ever accurately portray those last few hours of the Savior's life, but we are humbly attempting to give glory to God by our simple means, recognizing that the work of the Holy Spirit is far more important that any work that we could do.

So Monday evening through Thursday lunch found eight students at St. Vincent College. We spent our mornings in prayer and our afternoons and evenings in rehearsal. Fr. Shawn led us in Lectio Divina (a Benedictine practice of meditating on Scripture), Mass, and Adoration. Br. Elijah and Mr. Reilly helped us with the musical and theatrical elements of performing on stage. Chris Fiano, a talented music major at St. Vincent, also spent a lot of time with us on Thursday working on our voice parts. He has one of the main roles in the show and we were very grateful that he took even more time out of his busy schedule (or his sleep schedule since it was break) to work on the singing aspect. In the previous weeks and for the actual show, Mr. Octave has been and will be choral director.

I don't want to say much more about the Way of the Cross. It's almost as if one attempted to describe Mel Gibson's "Passion of Christ." It is so super-natural that it can hardly be put into words and each person's reaction is so personal. To summarize exactly how the Holy Spirit has worked and will continue to work through the efforts of any Christian would be a task of folly. So I will content myself with saying what I have said and I hope that as many people that can will come to the Way of the Cross.

Thursday, March 6th, 10:00 AM and 7:30 PM

Friday, March 7th, 10:00 AM and 7:30 PM

Saturday, March 8th, 2:00 PM and 7:30 PM

Sunday, March 9th, 2:00 PM 

To the best of my knowledge, there will be Adoration in the Mary, Mother of Wisdom, Student Chapel before and after performances. Confession will also be available.