At the school in Jericho children play in the schoolyard, as children do everywhere. They run and laugh. Big drawings of Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse and other characters are drawn on the playground walls. And, as chaotic as the students are at play, they become orderly when the school bell rings, quickly lining up ready to go back to class.
It may sound like a typical school anywhere. But this school, sponsored by the Franciscans of the Holy Land, is special because it is the only school in Palestine that includes both Muslim and Christian children.
The school is growing fast. In fact, the students have outgrown their facilities and a brand new school is rising up next door. When completed, the school will be educating about 900 students instead of the 450 at the older school. Literally, the future leadership of this Palestinian city, only a few miles from Jerusalem, is growing up together.
Funds from the Good Friday collection help support the school. The Good Friday collection, which is taken up in Catholic parishes’ worldwide each year, is used to support Christian ministries, like this school, in the Holy Land. These ministries are as diverse as running homes for the elderly poor in Bethlehem, leading parishes in war-ravaged Syria, welcoming millions of pilgrims to shrines or conducting archaeological research.
In these times of heightened tension, those who participate in the Good Friday collection are standing up for peace and reconciliation in a troubled land.
The collection, which has been requested by Pope Francis and his predecessors, is the primary way that Catholics can support the holy places that still commemorate the time that Jesus spent on earth. The massive basilica in Nazareth stands over the cave where the Annunciation of the angel proclaimed the Good News that Mary was with child receives funds from the collection. Outside the church in Nazareth is the boundary of the small town that was home to Mary and Joseph before the birth of the Savior.
Nearby, the Franciscans, with the funds from the collection, support a church where tradition holds that Jesus worked his first miracle in Cana. Not far are shrines and holy places that commemorate the Sermon on the Mount that welcome pilgrims and those on spiritual retreat.
Of course, the Good Friday collection supports the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, originally built by the Emperor Constantine, in Jerusalem which encapsulates what tradition holds is the place of Calvary and the tomb where Jesus was laid before his Glorious Resurrection.
The Good Friday collection supports these sacred places and much more including 29 active parishes, scholarly research and archaeological investigations from a Christian perspective.
The Good Friday collection is important because it gives every Catholic a chance to invest in the future of Christianity. It is of particular importance when considering the dwindling Christian population in Jerusalem. In the mid 19th century Jerusalem had a Christian makeup of 22 percent, today it holds merely 2 percent.
On Good Friday, there is only one collection in our churches and it is dedicated to the Holy Land. This collection promotes a great sense of community among all Catholics. Why not be generous?