Got 5 Minutes—to visit the Stations of the Cross?

By The Rev. Dr. Marilyn Hames 

If you have 4.53 minutes to be precise and go to the link below, you can visit the fourteen Stations of the Cross via a video prepared by Bruce Gregg based on the watercolours you see here, but zooming in on tiny details that lead you forward, joining Jesus on his route to the Cross then the Tomb.    

YouTube St John’s Shaughnessy, The Passion: A Study in Watercolours  

Alternatively, you can use these images to get up close and personal, stepping into the frame of each painting.  

Along the way, you find little clues as to what is going on, or who is involved since certain people are dressed in distinct ways—sometimes helping, perhaps peeping around corners to follow at a distance, or in the act of doing something.  Threats are never far away, whether symbolized by clenched fists, a lance, club, scourge, or nail.  The colour scheme shifts, as darkness descends and the curtain of the Temple is torn in two, while an eclipse echoes the crown of thorns—a motif subtly shrouded in mystery surrounding the rock sealing the tomb.  

Partly as a spiritual exercise, I love painting landscapes—spiritual landscapes that speak of life’s journey.  However, six weeks ago, sitting in church with an ash cross tickling my forehead, the idea of painting the Stations of the Cross seared itself into my mind—an idea I could not shake off even when I remembered there are fourteen Stations so was sorely tempted to give up chocolate or wine for Lent instead.   

It’s been quite a journey and was certainly a discipline to keep at it day after day, but a wonderful experience to enter so deeply, deliberately into the story, imagining the twists and turns of city streets leading out onto the ‘green hill far away…’, then descending to the tomb.  It’s a journey you can share in heart and mind by visiting these little watercolours while you meditate on Christ’s Passion in preparation for celebrating the Resurrection.    

---

The individual images for each station can be viewed in the gallery above. 
A guide to the stations in sequence is available at the bottom of this page.