I wandered through a very artistic expression of the Stations of the Cross on a mountainside in Radium, British Columbia, Canada a few days ago. The bronze depictions of Jesus’ journey to death and his glorious resurrection were a great reminder of his love and sacrifice for me — for us.

The Stations of the Cross are extremely helpful. They assist the faithful follower of Jesus on a spiritual pilgrimage of prayer though the major scenes of Jesus’ final hours. This pilgrimage helps me to enter into the suffering of Jesus’ death and the joy of his resurrection in different way than the when I read the accounts in the Scriptures.

I first encountered the Stations at Colonial Church in Edina, MN. Tony Jones was on staff at Colonial at the time and each season of Lent he would set up the Stations in the fellowship hall and people from all over the Twin Cities would journey through them. Since that experience I try to experience the Stations at least 3 or 4 times a year.

Here is a couple of pics from the Stations in Radium…

Station # 1: Jesus is condemned to death

Station # 7: Jesus is helped by Simon of Cyrene

Station # 12: Jesus dies on a cross

If you would like to help your students on their way to encountering or experiencing more deeply the Stations of the Cross (you can do this anytime, it doesn’t have to be Lent!), I would encourage you to download this FREE guide written by Faith Bosland called Journey to the Cross (a Stations of the Cross adaptation) on the Youth Specialties website.