Walk with Jesus: Stations of the Cross

Jesus walked through the villages and countryside of Palestine. He walked among the people, offering the good news of God's Reign and the healing touch of his compassion. Finally, Jesus walked from the Garden, of Gethsemane to the Cross on Calvary … These meditations by beloved author Henri Nouwen follow the traditional Stations of the Cross through the passion and suffering of the world's poor. Inspired by the drawings of Sister Helen David, Nouwen sees in these images the ongoing passion of Christ- Sr. Helen's drawings are stark and moving-a political prisoner behind bars, a peasant burdened by a load of wood, an abandoned child, a mother grieving for her murdered son, an exhausted farmer-but they do not lead to despair. Rather, as Nouwen notes, they "help us unite our own broken humanity with the humanity of the men, women, and children portrayed ... This union becomes possible through the suffering and risen body of Jesus. In and through Jesus, our world can become one because in this divine love he embraces all of us, and desires that we all he one as he and his father are one."