The Exterior

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The Calvary Steps

The great flight of steps up from the road, wide as the Church and very shallow are thirty three (33) in number, representing the years of Our Lord’s life.

The first series consists of twelve steps and represents Our Lord’s Boyhood which ended according to Jewish belief “when He was twelve years old” when He paid His first visit to the Temple at the Feast of the Passover.

The next series of seven represent His Adolescence and of the years in which “Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and men.” The pilgrim is now at the nineteenth step and according to tradition it was when Our Lord was nineteen that Joseph died and He became responsible for the care of Mary His mother and for the family business at Nazareth.

The next eleven steps commemorate the hidden years of Jesus the carpenter and remind us of the dignity of our everyday work.

The final three (3) steps into Cathedral stand for the years of His ministry for Saint Luke tells us “Jesus Himself when He began to teach was about thirty years of age.

Other Church Exterior

The spacious chequered paving before the narthex provides a useful meeting place…