The Stations of the Cross are a series of 14 images depicting Christ on the day of his crucifixion. The stations were a way of re-enacting the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem, the path that Jesus took to Calvary and his crucifixion. The idea was to help people make a spiritual pilgrimage through contemplation of Christ´s final steps.

Here in Spain many towns have created a pilgrim route in the form of the stations of the cross and most churches have the 14 stations around their walls.

At Salinas, we will meet in church at 12 noon and follow the stations on the church walls and on the altar (see photo attached). As with other events in Holy Week, we are no longer spectators, but participants. As we walk the 14 stations with our Lord, we meet Simon of Cyrene, the women of Jerusalem, St Veronica who wiped Christ's face with her veil; we feel the weight of the cross and the weight of betrayal, and we suffer the pain as Christ is whipped, as he stumbles and falls, and the humiliation as he is stripped of his clothes. And the despair as he carries his cross up that sweaty hill, to be nailed to it at the top. And to die...in agony.

"Lord, … You accepted patiently and humbly the rebuffs of human life, as well as the torture of the cross. Help us to accept the pains and conflicts that come to us each day as opportunity to grow as people and become more like you……… that we can come to live more fully - only by dying with you, that we can rise with you." (Mother Teresa)

The picture shows the Stations of the Cross, drawn by young people at the Salinas Roman Catholic Congregation

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