HUNDREDS of island residents made the annual trek to Mt. Tapochao in the rain as part of the traditional Good Friday “lukao” or procession on April 18.
At around 5 a.m., Bishop Romeo Convocar of the Diocese of Chalan Kanoa blessed the wooden cross that devotees would carry on their shoulders to the island’s highest summit. Residents recited the Stations of the Cross in Chamorro as they walked alongside the cross.
The cross was erected on Mt. Tapochao’s peak at the procession’s conclusion. This was the first Good Friday Bishop Convocar observed with the local diocese.
The bishop, who was installed in March, led the prayer when the cross was brought atop Mt. Tapochao around 6:30 a.m.
He said carrying the cross was an example of residents “expressing their faith.” He said the lukao was “more than just a walk.”
“The walk itself gives you the experience of the hardships of walking and carrying the cross, so it gives us that glimpse of how hard the Lord carried the cross for mankind,” he said. “We have our own little crosses, or big crosses to carry in day-to-day life. It reminds us that there’s somebody that walks with us. The Lord walks with us and He triumphed over sin and death.”
On Good Friday, a wooden cross was raised atop the island’s highest summit.
Devotees touched the wooden cross before it was lifted atop Mt. Tapochao’s summit.
Bishop Romeo Convocar blessed the wooden cross that volunteers carried on their shoulders up Mt. Tapochao.
Devotees carried the cross to Mt. Tapochao’s summit on Good Friday.
Devotees carried a wooden cross as they made their way up Mt. Tapochao, the island’s highest summit, on Good Friday as part of a local Holy Week tradition.
