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During Lent, we reflect on Christ’s life, suffering, and death. To better understand His Passion, the students of Troy University’s St. Martin of Tours Newman Center have prepared a Live Stations of the Cross performance during Holy Week.
The play, originally slated for Good Friday, will instead be Wednesday April, 20, because many university students will be celebrating Easter at home with their families.
Troy University’s St. Martin Newman Center will be performing the play and many of the students are trying to get into the right state of mind, thinking about what the walk to Calvary must have been like.
Recent convert to Catholicism Brandon Rosso, who will portray Jesus in the upcoming play, said he is looking forward to its performance.
“To be honest, the idea of me playing Jesus started off as a joke,” Rosso said. “But, when they picked me for the part, I knew I had to take this seriously.”
Rosso said he has grown to appreciate the part and feels as though he will learn a lot about the Gospel by “being in Jesus’ shoes” for a little while.
“No one can really understand the pain that our Lord went through during His walk to Calvary, but doing this gives me a little bit of an idea,” Rosso said. “It’s really powerful to step into our savior’s shoes for about 20-30 minutes. It’s a little bit of an eye-opener.”
According to Rosso he and the others are preparing for their perspective parts by praying before each practice.
“We pray before each practice and this comes up in my prayers, personally, quite often,” Rosso said.
“I pray the Rosary about it and, really it is a good way to prepare for this part because you dwell on the life of Jesus and certain mysteries of the Rosary deal with the Crucifixion story. So, it’s a good way to get yourself into that frame of mind.”
Casey Green, student director for the play, said she is excited about her part in directing the play.
“It’s an honor,” Green said. “I did a lot of research by reading the Bible, of course, but in addition to that I watched the Passion of the Christ by Mel Gibson for the first time.”
Green said the movie put a lot of things into perspective for her, as she found the movie to be both powerful and compelling.
“Obviously, this play won’t be as intense as Mel Gibson’s movie, but the movie itself did give me some ideas,” Green said. “I’ve been trying to impress those ideas upon the other students involved and we have been offering up a lot of prayer surrounding this play.”
The students have been practicing twice a week for a month to prepare themselves to take upon the cross of Jesus. Many parishioners of St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church have donated time and money to produce the Passion Play. The Newman Center members would especially like to thank Yalile Gonzalez-Deal, Jana Rogers, Mary Ann Price, and Mike Gibbons.
This play has also been an ecumenical project- members of other Christian campus ministries have volunteered to assist with the performance. This has helped bridge the gap between the groups and show we are united in our love for the Lord.
The Live Stations of the Cross performance will take place on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Saint Martin of Tours Catholic Church. Everyone is invited to attend.
Later this week, St. Martin Newman Center members and other campus ministries will spend time in Troy University’s Arboretum praying all night, like how Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane. The event, called “Night Watch”, is the idea of Newman Center members, Theresa Kiernan and Holli Keaton.
Kiernan and Keaton are very excited about the potential of the event.
“Night Watch” will begin on Holy Thursday at 10 p.m. and end on Good Friday at 8 a.m. The Lord only asks us to stay one hour; however many students are preparing to devote the entire night to prayer. Many students, Catholic and non-Catholic, are expected to attend.
May God bless you during Holy Week. Saint Martin of Tours, pray for us!
