Tonight, we prayed the Stations of the Cross by Valerie Dean, which are temporarily at St Andrew's Wickford during Lent and Holy Week, using a new set of meditations that I have written specially for Valerie's images.
Valerie's Stations of the Cross have a very clear and intense focus on details which are evocative of the whole. They have previously been shown at St Martin-in-the-Fields and the Diocesan Offices of the Diocese of Chelmsford.
Valerie Dean returned to England in the summer of 2007 after living for 27 years in Belgium. There, she studied art for six years and had various exhibitions, in and around Brussels. On returning to England, she became involved in the Kent arts scene and exhibited, regularly, in the Francis Iles gallery, in Rochester. She also took part in the Canterbury Arts Festival and exhibitions in Whitstable.
She worked in acrylics and her technique was usually to put materials and colours on canvas or board, to see what emerged. It was a dialogue between the artist and her materials. Because of her background, this often consisted of figures around a religious theme. They just appeared! Very often, people seemed to want to appear in her paintings, a little like the pictures in the fire that she used to see in her childhood. At other times, she found that buildings and places she knew inspired her.
Valerie's Stations show us hands that heal and hands that harm. As we looked and thought and prayed together, we reflected on the many ways that our hands can be used to heal or to harm.
Station 1 - Jesus is condemned
The accusatory finger
Finger pointing
Pointing condemnation
From a washed hand
Seeking to avoid blame
While unaware there
Are four fingers
Pointing back
At the one
Condemning Jesus
Station 2 - Jesus takes up his cross
Hands that embrace
Embrace the rough wood
Embrace the weight of the cross
Embrace the purpose of suffering
Embrace the sin that is carried
Embrace the isolation that is entered
Embrace the death that awaits
Station 3 - Jesus falls for the first time
Hands grip tight
Wood held
Grip slipped
Feet stumble
Body crumples
And tumbles
Pinioned and winded
Under cruel cross
Fallen for the first time
Station 4 - Jesus meets his mother
Around your face and
in your eyes, we see
the accumulated aura
Of wisdom gained
Through contemplation,
Pondering in your heart,
The nativity, Incarnation,
and now, this crucifixion.
Questions also accumulate.
What has happened to
The child I once bore?
How will the promises
Prophesied about him
Be fulfilled?
You trust and follow.
Station 5 – Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the cross
A handy helpmeet,
Whether prevailed upon
or not, chosen.
Chosen to be with Jesus
Walking in his footsteps
Handling his cross.
Simon, you are
All that we should become.
Station 6 - Veronica wipes the face of Jesus
What can one give
The suffering one?
How can one
Relieve pain,
Show care or love?
A simple cloth
Is handed over.
Sweat wiped from
Face and brow.
Relief, momentary
But meaningful.
A journey transformed.
A cloth transformed.
Station 7 - Jesus falls for the second time
Weak knees,
Weary legs,
An exhausted body
Flags and falls.
Hands outstretched
To break the fall
Are pounded,
Scratched and bruised
In seeking to protect
The body’s dive
Into hard unforgiving
Land, not
embracing Water.
Station 8 – Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem
Hands cradle faces
Faces convulse and sigh
Tears flood and flow
The Passion of these
Women of Jerusalem
Approaches, encroaches,
draws nigh
Station 9 - Jesus falls for the third time
Your fall is as
The second Adam.
Not falling into sin
But bearing all sin –
An unimaginable burden –
An unbearable weight
Bearing down
Upon your shoulders
And God laid on himself
the guilt,
the guilt and the sin
of
every
one
of
us.
If God forsakes himself
to be
for
us,
then who
can be
against us.
Station 10 - Jesus is stripped of his garments
Stripped of equality with God.
Stripped of glory.
Stripped of power.
Stripped of family.
Stripped of occupation.
Stripped of possessions.
Stripped of followers.
Stripped of respect.
Stripped of clothing.
Stripped naked.
Stripped raw.
Stripped to the bone.
Becoming nothing,
no one,
everyone.
Station 11 – Jesus is nailed to the cross
Nails driven through
The flesh, sinews, muscles
And bone of wrists
And ankles.
Hands, fingers, toes
Contort from the
Searing pain
Inflicted by
Unforgiving hammers.
Harmful hands
Hammer hurtful nails
Into hands
That heal.
Station 12 – Jesus dies on the cross
Death has been knocking on the door
Death has entered
Death is here
It is finished
Forgiveness achieved
Salvation complete
Mission accomplished
It is finished
Forgiveness for betrayal
Forgiveness for wrongful arrest
Forgiveness for abandonment
Forgiveness for denial
Forgiveness for a corrupt trial
Forgiveness for false witness
Forgiveness for mob rule
Forgiveness for legal capitulation
Forgiveness for condemnation of the innocent
Forgiveness for imprisonment
Forgiveness for beating
Forgiveness for mockery
Forgiveness for violence
Forgiveness for torture
Forgiveness for murder
All sin
All humanity
All held
All covered
All embraced
All forgiven
Station 13 – Jesus is taken down from the cross
The limp hand
Of a lifeless body
Is held by
The live hand
Of a disciple
Helping support
And carry
The dead Christ
Down from
The death
Instrument
To be held
And cradled
In the arms
Of his grieving
Mother.
Manhandled when
beaten, whipped,
nailed and pierced,
the body of God
is handled with care
as Jesus is taken
in the arms of those
who loved him.
Station 14 – Jesus is buried in the tomb
Buried, entombed
In a cave -
In your end
As in your
Beginning.
Sealed behind stone.
A barrier
Preventing entry.
From the gaps
Around its edges
The faint glimmer
And glimpse
Of resurrection light
Pertains, extends,
To be seen,
To be perceived,
Received.
You cannot be
Contained.
My other collections of meditations on the Stations of the Cross are Mark of the Cross and The Passion. These are collections of images, meditations and prayers by Henry Shelton and myself on the Stations. They provide helpful reflections and resources for Lent and Holy Week. These collections can both be found as downloads from theworshipcloud.
Mark of the Cross is a book of 20 poetic meditations on Christ’s journey to the cross and reactions to his resurrection and ascension. The meditations are complemented by a set of semi-abstract watercolours of the Stations of the Cross and the Resurrection created by Henry Shelton.
The Passion: Reflections and Prayers features minimal images with haiku-like poems and prayers that enable us to follow Jesus on his journey to the cross reflecting both on the significance and the pain of that journey as we do so. Henry and I have aimed in these reflections to pare down the images and words to their emotional and theological core. The mark making and imagery is minimal but, we hope, in a way that makes maximum impact.
Jesus dies on the cross
The sun is eclipsed, early nightfall,
darkness covers the surface of the deep,
the Spirit grieves over the waters.
On the formless, empty earth, God is dead.
Through the death of all we hold most dear, may we find life. Amen.
Mark of the Cross is a book of 20 poetic meditations on Christ’s journey to the cross and reactions to his resurrection and ascension. The meditations are complemented by a set of semi-abstract watercolours of the Stations of the Cross and the Resurrection created by Henry Shelton.
The Passion: Reflections and Prayers features minimal images with haiku-like poems and prayers that enable us to follow Jesus on his journey to the cross reflecting both on the significance and the pain of that journey as we do so. Henry and I have aimed in these reflections to pare down the images and words to their emotional and theological core. The mark making and imagery is minimal but, we hope, in a way that makes maximum impact.
Jesus dies on the cross
The sun is eclipsed, early nightfall,
darkness covers the surface of the deep,
the Spirit grieves over the waters.
On the formless, empty earth, God is dead.
Through the death of all we hold most dear, may we find life. Amen.
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Lizz Wright - Presence Of The Lord.
