Friday, April 21, 2000
85 steps to spiritual well-being
Good Friday tradition at Holy Cross-Immaculata makes climbers feel good inside
BY Richelle Thompson
The Cincinnati Enquirer
This 1983 photo shows Randy Lipps, then 11, with cousin Maria Heidi, then 9, praying the rosary while walking the steps.
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Randy Lipps can't remember the first time he spent Good Friday praying the steps at Holy Cross-Immaculata Church in Mount Adams. He's followed the tradition as long as his memory stretches. But April 1, 1983, stands out with crystal clarity.
Under cloudy skies, an 11-year-old Randy and his 9-year-old cousin, Marsha Heidi, climbed the 85 steps that stretch from St. Gregory Street to the church on the hill. Like thousands of Catholics and some Protestants since the Good Friday pilgrimages began 141 years ago, Randy and Marsha recited prayers at each step.
Randy Lipps
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An Enquirer photographer snapped the picture. It ran in the next day's paper, and Randy was an instant celebrity among his friends.
“Back then (praying the steps) was something we did because my mom asked us,” says Mr. Lipps, 28, of Northside. Still, even then, he felt good when he finished. There was a sense of being part of something bigger than himself that even a child could comprehend.
The faded newspaper clip is tucked in a scrapbook, but Mr. Lipps will come to Holy Cross-Immaculata today. Although he follows in the footsteps of his grandmother and mother, of his four brothers and cousins, Mr. Lipps charts his own path. He prays the steps by choice.
HOW IT BEGAN
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The tradition of “praying the steps” began in a boat on the rocky seas, so goes the story according to the Rev. Stan Neiheisel of the Holy Cross-Immaculata Church.
In 1854, Cincinnati Archbishop John B. Purcell was traveling from Rome when a vicious storm broke over the Atlantic. Passengers on the ship huddled together and prayed. The archbishop promised God he would build a church at the highest point in Cincinnati in exchange for safe passage.
When the archbishop arrived in Cincinnati, he began work on the Mount Adams church. He asked the people to pray. And they did, climbing the muddy slopes of the hill and beseeching God to watch over the project.
The cornerstone was laid in 1859, and the church was dedicated in 1860. Soon after, wooden steps were erected up the hillside. In 1911, the city of Cincinnati helped the church build concrete steps.
Over the years, the tradition evolved to praying the steps on Good Friday. Over 141 years, it has attracted tens of thousands of Catholics and non-Catholics.
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“Christ sacrificed himself for us,” he says. “It's just something we can do to say thanks and to reflect upon it.”
Over the 24 hours of Good Friday, about 12,000 likely will make the pilgrimage. The Rev. Stan Neiheisel begins the tradition in the quiet blackness of midnight by blessing the concrete steps amid a small crowd of devotees.
Many wait until dawn to begin their ascent, stopping at the top of Mount Adams to pray at the foot of a statue of Jesus crucified on the cross. They can look out and see commuters dodging traffic and barges inching down the river.
They will share donuts and coffee as the dew rises and eat fish-fry dinners as the sun sets. They will sit in wooden pews to worship during the Good Friday services.
With this tradition, people “really take time out and think about things that are important,” says Father Neiheisel.
“In the rain or anything else, still lots and lots of people will walk it. They'll walk with their umbrellas and their raincoats and anything else, but they'll be there.”
Bill Elfers, 80, estimates he's climbed the steps more than 70 times.
(Glenn Hartong photo)
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Bill Elfers missed praying the steps when he joined the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Depression and when he served in the Navy during World War II.
Bad knees knocked him out of praying the steps a few other times.
But for most of his 80 years, Mr. Elfers has spent Good Friday on the steep concrete steps.
Mr. Elfers likes to say he was born on the second floor of the Pavilion parking lot, in a Mount Adams house long since torn down to make room for cars. One of seven children of John and Mary Elfers, he's lived in the neighborhood of shotgun houses and specialty shops his whole life.
Good Friday was near when Mr. Elfers could smell pea soup cooking on his mom's stove.
Praying the steps took 10 minutes on young knees. Today, Mr. Elfers expects it'll take 20 to 30 minutes.
“Especially when you start getting older, you think about new life and what's going to happen to you,” Mr. Elfers says.
He'll pray for “good health and that everything goes well and that the good Lord will be with me when my time comes to go.”
Kath Scully Hueneman will greet pilgrims at the top. She hopes to pray the steps but fears bad health may impede her.
The 73-year-old Mount Adams resident hasn't missed too many years though. It's a tradition she prizes.
Mrs. Hueneman lives in the same house she was born and can remember passing by the pretzel vendor on her way up the steps as a child.
The pretzel man carried a big, woven, laundry basket covered with an oilcloth. Inside were mounds of fresh, chewy, homemade pretzels.
“Once you were 14, you couldn't buy them anymore. You had to fast,” she says. “When you were 14, you had to walk right past, and think, "Boy, I wish I could have some of that.'”
It was a simple, temporal reminder of the divine sacrifice.
When Mrs. Hueneman prays the steps, she thinks about Christ's passion and his walk to Calvary.
For a moment, “you feel like you're with him on his way to the cross,” she says. And “you feel like he's with you.”
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