If you visit Jerusalem, you would have the opportunity to walk the Via Dolorosa, the “way of pain.” On that Friday long ago, it was on those busy streets, winding through the city and out its gates to a hill, that Jesus carried his heavy cross. The “Stations of the Cross” appear as markers along the way. On Good Friday, pilgrims gather to walk the stations, remembering at each marker what Jesus endured out of love for us. By walking through the stations — wherever we find ourselves this day — we do the same.
May God bless and guide your walk this day… and always.
Stations of the Cross
Station 1: Jesus Is Judged
Station 2: Jesus Takes Up the Cross
Station 3: Jesus Falls for the First Time
Station 4: Jesus Meets His Mother
Station 5: Simon the Cyrene Helps Jesus Carry the Cross
Station 6: The Veil of Veronica
Station 7: Jesus Falls the Second Time
Station 8: Jesus Consoles the Women of Jerusalem
Station 9: Jesus Falls the Third Time
Station 10: Jesus Is Stripped of his Garments
Station 11: Jesus Is Nailed to the Cross
Station 12: Jesus Dies on the Cross
Station 13: Jesus Is Taken Down from the Cross
Station 14: Jesus is Placed in the Tomb
A Walk in Jerusalem: Stations of the Cross by John L. Peterson (a wonderful book available on Amazon)
Aerial photography of Jerusalem courtesy of GoogleEarth, Via Dolorosa/Gethsemane overlaid by Hedy Collver.
Stations of the Cross photography by John Archer, Hedy Collver, and purchased from iStock.
The Stations of the Cross illustrated plaques are from Saint George’s Cathedral in Jerusalem, photography Hedy Collver.