I have been fortunate enough to have been given a ticket for the Burning of the Temple in the Waterside. 

It is an art project with over a hundred people from all communities coming together to build these wooden structures complete with spire.

‘Bring your worst fear, your saddest loss to leave behind in the Temple to burn’ says David Best, project co-ordinator.

It reminds me of a little para- liturgy we have here every Holy Week, around what we call ‘the Garment of Suffering’.

There are many areas of unresolved grief, pain and hurt in our lives. 

Whether it be a death or a separation, the pain of living with an alcoholic, a broken relationship, being misunderstood, bad health, the pain of parents as they watch their children having to emigrate or leading lives they disapprove of, the pain of having been abused, the pain of failure, rejection or unemployment.

As a sign of the pain or grief in the lives of so many we invite people to hand in a piece of  cloth about six inches long (preferably in purple and preferably  if they would  write on the cloth what their pain may be].

Every Holy Thursday night we have a half hour of prayer from 11.30-midnight.

We reflect on Christ’s sufferings in the Garden of Gethsemane  and we include prayers of healing for all those who submitted a piece of cloth which by this stage has been sewn together into one long garment. [Any reader of this column is welcome to drop in or post in such a piece of cloth]. This is then draped over the cross on Good Friday. ‘By His Wounds We are Healed.’

It  remains there until after the Vigil Mass on Pentecost when it is burned publicly and the ashes mixed with those of last year’s palms for next year’s Ash Wednesday. 

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