Photo Caption: Jesus, portrayed by Stephen Gaul, begins “A Walk Through Holy Week” with a palm procession oustide St. Paul’s School in Macomb. He is accompanied by apostle John (Owen Benson).

By: By Jennifer Willems

MACOMB — Jesus doesn’t walk through Holy Week alone at St. Paul’s School here.

He has more than 100 young companions from first grade through sixth grade who remember his death and resurrection in story, art and song on Holy Thursday. The re-enactment sends the students into Easter weekend with a greater understanding of what they will be celebrating, according to principal Barbara Shrode.

“It’s one of my favorite things every year. It really brings it all together, the mission of having a Catholic school,” she told The Catholic Post as the students left for their Easter break March 28. “The other thing that is so touching is the number of non-Catholic families that we have who come up and say, ‘Wow. This is why we send our child here.'”

The annual program started in the school courtyard, where the first-graders led the other students — as well as parents, parishioners and guests — in welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem by waving palms. Singing the Taize chant “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom,” they all processed into the school gym for Jesus’ betrayal by Judas on Spy Wednesday, which was presented by the second-graders.

After the group moved to the Upper Room in the school, the sixth-graders gave voice to the apostles and women of Jerusalem. Standing and explaining to the younger students the characters they represented, they shared why they would join Jesus at the Last Supper.

The third-graders took the lead when the group reassembled in the church for the Stations of the Cross. As the images the class had drawn were projected onto the church wall, the students came forward to read the meditation for each Station.

Processing back to the school gym, the fifth-graders presented highlights from the Easter Vigil. They read the names of those who would be welcomed into the church on Holy Saturday and invited everyone to come and experience the liturgy and welcome these new brothers and sisters in faith.

The events of Easter Sunday were acted out by the fourth-graders. Filling the church sanctuary they sang “Carry the Cross,” reminding their listeners of the need to serve others.

“(Jesus) laid down his life and he asked us to lay down our life — to die to self and care about the needs and wants of others,” said Msgr. Richard Pricco, pastor, who walked with them from Palm Sunday to Easter. He asked the children to remember that not only at Easter but throughout their lives.

He sent them forth with a blessing and a reminder: “Be kind with each other, be gentle with one another and be loving with one another.”

LONGTIME TRADITION
The Holy Week re-enactment has been a tradition at St. Paul’s since 1985. Connie Meixner, the director of religious education at that time, brought the idea to principal Terri Burnham from Today’s Catholic Teacher magazine and it quickly caught on.

“Each year each teacher has built it a little more and tweaked it,” said Burnham, who stepped down as principal in 1993 and returned as the fourth grade teacher in 2001. “I was pleasantly surprised that they were still doing it and carrying it on. It’s my favorite part of the year.”

The final song says it all for Burnham.

“That’s our mission as Christians,” she told The Post. “We are to carry the cross for those people who can’t. I truly believe that. The words are what we are all about.”

Shrode said that when she writes about the re-enactment in the school newsletter she encourages people to come and see Holy Week and Easter through the eyes and voices of the children.

“What better way to hear it than in its purity and its innocence,” she said. “There hasn’t been one I haven’t cried at.”