present-day stations of the cross

Well, it's been a while, but I suppose there's no time like Good Friday to begin writing/sharing again...

Two or three years ago in Lent I posted (on a different blog) the stations of the cross with pictures of everyday people instead of Jesus. It was a good spiritual practice for me, so I decided to try it again with new images. Why? I believe that God suffers every time one of God's creation suffers, and so this is my attempt to see Christ in the world around me. On Good Friday, I think it's especially important to remember those around the world who are suffering. And so, without further ado, I give you this year's rendition (taken from Google images).

Stations of the Cross

First station: Jesus is condemned to die

final stop of death row

Second station: Jesus takes up his cross

Third station: Jesus falls the first time

Fourth station: Jesus meets his afflicted mother

Fifth station: The cross is laid on Simon of Cyrene

Sixth station: A woman wipes the face of Jesus

 bird being cleaned after oil spill

Seventh station: Jesus falls a second time

Eighth station: Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem

 woman in Haiti

 women in Libya praying

Ninth station: Jesus falls a third time

Tenth station: Jesus is stripped of his garments

Eleventh station: Jesus is nailed to the cross

Twelfth station: Jesus dies on the cross

 nuns killed during the civil war in El Salvador

Thirteenth station: The body of Jesus is placed in the arms of his mother

a Sudanese woman closing the eyes of her child

a woman mourning the death of her child in Iraq

Fourteenth station: Jesus is laid in the tomb

hanging coffins in the Philippines 

"Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so move every human heart, that barriers which divide us may crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease; that our divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."  BCP p. 823