On Good Friday morning, the quiet foothills of Mount St Benedict will reverberate with the sounds of cracking whips and wailing of women as the re-enactment of Christ’s journey to Calvary makes its way up the steep slope to the holy Mount.

These are the anticipated sounds as the parishioners of St John the Baptist RC Church in St Augustine and others re-enact the Stations of the Cross.

Stations of the Cross, Calvary, St Joseph. Desmond Durham photo

Anne Shahid, director of this drama said because we live in such a secular world, she felt it was important that this drama be repeated.

She added that there was a need to sensitise people of the suffering that Christ endured as he bore his cross on that bleak Friday two thousand years ago.

“Seeing is believing” were her words as she shared the passion she felt in this production. There is need to concretise the message and what better way to do this if not by an enactment.

Matthew Eversley will once again perform the role of Jesus and he promises that he will display all his passion and be even more dramatic than he was last year.

The parish priest will portray Pontius Pilate. There will also be some horses and this Anne, says represents “power,” much like the power of Jesus in this world.

The journey will begin at 4.00 a.m. with a procession from the corner of St John Road and the Eastern Main Road, during which the rosary will be recited and hymns sung as pilgrims make their way to Pax Gate where the re-enactment will begin at the first station.

The Stations of the Cross will end at the Abbey of Mount St Benedict, where the pilgrims will join the monks in Morning Prayer at 6.00 a.m.