A few years ago, I had the idea (Holy Spirit inspiration?) to make a Stations of the Cross on our trail in the woods behind my house. At first, I thought I would make the stations by wood burning a representation of each station into a large tree cookie (a slice of a tree) and putting it on a post along the trail. This was really more detailed than I had time for, and this year I wanted to try to walk the Stations as often as possible, so I needed to finally create the Stations at Home. Instead, I compromised by woodburning the Roman Numeral for each station and then hanging it on a tree along the path.
I wood burned each numeral into a small tree cookie and then I stained it with stain and protectant. I chose cherry and sassafras trees that we are trying to thin from the woods so as not to damage any of the oaks. I tried to space them fairly evenly, but some are farther apart because there wasn’t a non-oak tree to hang it on for a little ways. Below are some photos of some of the stations:
Stations at Home
I am thankful that it worked out this way, actually, because not having an image representing each station means I can use almost any Stations of the Cross when I walk this trail. Some Stations combine the times Jesus fell and spend time on things that happened before Jesus was condemned to die.
A Scriptural Way of the Cross from Magnificat is like this.
It refers back to each station to passages in the Bible, so it starts with Jesus on the Mount of Olives, moves to Jesus being betrayed by Judas, being condemned, denied by Peter, judged by Pilate, and then on the 6th Station being scourged and crowned with thorns.
I like that it has art for each station and corresponding Bible readings.
There is even a playlist for each station. You can find it here (linked). They have it on Spotify, YouTube, and other venues.
I couldn’t stop at the 14th Station, so I created a 15th station for the Resurrection. We are an Easter people, after all. For now, I had to place it on the other side of the grove at the far back of our woods. But soon I’ll get a cedar pole and put it right in the center of the grove.
This grove was one of my favorite things about the house when we first moved. I had hoped against hope that there would be a good bit of woods somewhere in the back. We only looked at the house and the front part of the lot when we bought the house. There was no trail running through it, so we couldn’t really access it. I told Stuart, my husband, that there absolutely had to be good woods back there- filled with oaks and rare native plants. He was sure it was all invasive species because that’s what it looked like from the edge of the woods. But sure enough, when we cut a path through it, we found many rare (and even state-endangered species!) back there.
Best of all, there was a wide grove of oaks. Reader, did you know that I was pagan back then? I thought this would be where I would worship the earth, in the moonlight under a canopy of oak branches and stars.
I still love oaks, but I don’t think they’re magical and I don’t worship them (or any other created thing). Their undeniable beauty only points me up,
up,
up,
to Jesus.
So Many Stations
After I prayed the Scriptural Stations, I went on the hunt for other version. I really wanted to find a copy of Mary’s Way of the Cross, which our Pastorate uses each year. I found that there were hundreds (no joke!) of variations. I bought probably more than I should and found many online PDF versions to print out.
Throughout Lent, I’ll pray with them and share my thoughts on them here.
Stations of the Resurrection – Via Lucis
I wondered too, could I use these stations to pray during Easter? Are there Stations of the Resurrection? The answer is Yes! I found many variations, but I’m most excited to try the Way of Light from RCCAV.org:
These stations start with Jesus rising from the dead, the apostles finding the tomb empty, His ministry after the resurrection, and end with Pentecost. I love Lent, but I am looking forward to Easter. Most of all, my daughter will be Baptized on Easter Vigil! Thanks be to God!
