Many years ago, when the Via de Cristo Movement was young, all Palanca was in the form of sacrifice – many prayers, Eucharist’s and much fasting. As time went on, the method of proclaiming this Palanca became more elaborate, with people using ornate paper with pictures, favorite scriptures and sayings. Thus, these ornamentations increasingly became the focus of Palanca.

In actuality, prior to a Via de Cristo weekend, the community spends many hours fasting and praying for the team and pilgrims; this goes on during the weekend as well. This is the requisite support for every Via de Cristo.

In order to emphasize this support, we are planning to make a garland of sacrifice to surround the pilgrims during the Palanca presentation on Friday or Saturday. This paper chain will be explained to the pilgrims and will be assembled with the strips that you submit.

This chain should be made from strips of colored paper, each color representing a different sacrifice. They can be approximately 8 inches long and one inch wide; however, don’t be concerned if your links vary in size. Each link represents some sacrifice by you and others – sponsors, team, and friends – for this particular Via de Cristo weekend.

The type of sacrifice will be color-coded as follows:

RED: Intercessory prayer for Via de Cristo, team and pilgrims
YELLOW: Sacrificial works (time spent on projects)
GREEN: Study of scripture and other Christian works
BLUE: Meditation and reflection (being in God’s presence)
PURPLE: Fasting

Please bring your assembled paper chains in a bag when you come on Thursday and give the bag to someone on the Palanca team. Before the Palanca presentation on Friday the team will join the various chains to make one long garland.

To help you keep a record of your sacrifices, we offer this record sheet on which you can record your daily offerings; then, just before the weekend, you can work from your record sheet to assemble your accumulated colored strips.

We thank you for sharing this presentation with us.

With Love, De Colores and Ultreya!