Holy Week can be a hectic time with multiple church services, Lent coming to a close, eggs of dye, candy to buy and preparations for sunrise services and egg hunts.

While it all went by a little fast for me, as all things do, Wednesday night I had a small window of time to slow it all down a little bit. The senior class of St. Aloysius High School held the annual prayer labyrinth out of luminaires on the school’s Balzli Field Wednesday night.

The labyrinth is used to facilitate prayer and meditation by walking a clear path typically winding from the outer corridors to the center. At the center of this square labyrinth was a cross draped with a purple cloth where those making the walk were encouraged to follow their emotions and not worry about showing their feelings.

The path the students laid out was lined by bags of candles, or luminaries, the students had sold to raise money for the entire school fund. Anyone who purchased a luminary could have the name of someone they wanted to remember or honor written on the bag.

I was there to cover the event for the newspaper, and once I had answers to my questions I walked through the labyrinth in an effort to get the perfect pictures of the burning luminaires and the people walking along the corridors of the labyrinth.

The darkness of the field lit only by candles was not represented well enough through flash photography, but without using the flash my shutter speed was automatically slower causing me to have to hold the camera extra still for each snap. I’m still not an expert at camera settings and there was probably an easy solution for this, but I was thoroughly intrigued by the look the pictures had with the luminaires and cross in focus as the people walking the course were blurred.

I snapped far more pictures than necessary, as usual, of people’s names I knew written on the bags, bags supporting the senior class, area clergy and those lost all too soon to the battle with cancer while influencing the entire community.

While slightly frustrating trying my hardest not to get an entirely blurry photo, it was kind of cathartic forcing myself to slow down, not worry about what I needed to do next and just make my way through the labyrinth as a warm breeze played on the night sky. A bright moon shown down and piano music played over the speakers creating a serene environment.

I have to admit I didn’t use the labyrinth in the way it was intended. I wasn’t in prayer during the majority of my walk, I didn’t really let go of the hectic world awaiting outside the labyrinth, I didn’t get emotional at the cross, but I felt the evening’s value and I appreciated it being available to me.

I hope to attend the labyrinth again next year, and maybe next time I’ll let someone else work the event for a story while I work to experience it fully.