The Mother of Light Center in Alexandria took Good Friday prayers to area neighborhoods with a “street retreat” April 15.
This is the second year the center has sponsored the retreat, with preaching on Jesus’ Good Friday message and prayers in both English and Spanish. Father Paul A. Berghout and Deacon Gerard-Marie Anthony, two diocesan clergy who work with the apostolate, led the retreat, walking around the area with ministry volunteers for about an hour and a half and stopping to speak in parking lots and on street corners as musicians playing meditative music.
Deacon Anthony said many area residents stopped to listen and asked for prayers and blessings. Some received rosaries and pamphlets on the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. “We were able to teach some of the kids playing outside about God’s love for them and left them with Easter bags of goodies and holy cards,” he said.
“It truly was a blessed event and we hope that it grows each year because on Good Friday, the Good Lord wants everyone to know that he or she is worth dying for and not forgotten,” Deacon Anthony said.
