Women at the Foot of the Cross

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Written in 2015 for a parish Good Friday celebration, we celebrate Women of the Passion: (1) the woman who anointed Jesus (Mark 14:1-9), (2) the wife of Pilate, named Claudia in the Tradition (Matthew 27:1-2 and 19), (3) one of the women of Jerusalem (Luke 23:26-28), (4) the women “looking on from a distance” (Mark 15:40-47), (5) Mary the mother of Jesus (John 19:25b-30), and (6) Mary of Magdala (John 19:25b, 41-42).  After each proclamation of Scripture, the woman tells her story.  It is through liturgical dance (to the Suffering Servant of Handel’s Messiah) that the women “looking on from a distance” make their story known.  A powerful experience of the Passion, through the voices of these women, brings us to the long waiting of Holy Saturday.