The Rev. Thomas Sparacino walked slowly around the perimeter of St. Richard Catholic Church on Good Friday, stopping to lead the congregation in prayer and meditation at each of 14 sculptural reliefs that illustrate Jesus's final steps to the cross at Calvary.

The age-old Catholic devotion known as the Stations of the Cross is prayed on Fridays during Lent. Each of the 14 stations commemorates an event that occurred from the time Jesus was condemned to his death on the cross.

"The Stations were originally performed many centuries ago by Christian pilgrims who visited the Holy Land and the sites of Jesus' Passion," according to the Community of Hope Inc. website.

At St. Richard, the Stations of the Cross are a solemn time.

In a church barely adorned, with purple cloths covering statues, the Rev. Sparacino announces each station.

The congregants pray with him as they commemorate Jesus's condemnation, his falling three times on the road to Calvary, being stripped of his clothes, nailed to the cross, dying and being taken down from the cross to be laid in a tomb.

The service ends with all singing: "Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom."