Liturgically, the Stations of the Cross take the form of prayer and pilgrimage, most often done within the context of community. My community for these meditations has included Barnett Newman, Steven Fry, Pádraig Ó Tuama, Richard Neuhaus, Peter DeVries, Makoto Fujimura, Shusaku Endo, Elie Wiesel, Denise Levertov, Kate Braestop. the filmmakers Yosuke Nakagawa and Xavier Beauvois, and The Ultimate Stabat Matter Site. Some of these writers or story tellers were old companions and some are new. Sometimes a writer helped me make a new acquaintance such as Fujimura insisting I read Endo and Neuhaus sending me to read DeVries. Other times, it was like sitting with a friend and happily finding out we had a friend in common. Neuhaus and Fujimura both talk about Endo’s Silence, Neuhaus references Father Christian from Of God’s and Men and Fujimura references The Departures.
I have carried in my heart the students and families from Parkland Florida as well as the family of Stephon Clark, the unarmed black 22 year old who was shot and killed by police officers in Sacramento while I was writing this.
The sources for quotes and references are listed below in the order in which they appear in the journal. All books and films are easily located through your favorite on-line sources.
- Valerie Hellstein
- Pádraig Ó Tuama
- Heard at the Trinity Institute 2018: Values in Action
- See also Book: In the Shelter: Finding a Home in the World
- The Ultimate Stabat Mater Site
- Richard Neuhaus
- Book: Death on a Friday Afternoon
- Stephen Fry
- Granchester
- Television: BBC Masterpice
- Elie Weisel
- Book: Night
- Franz Liszt
- Composition: Via Crucis
- Pierre Sauvage
- Film: Weapons of the Spirit
- Makato Fujimura
- Book: Silence and Beauty: Hidden Faith Born of Suffering,
- Shusaku Endo
- Book: Silence
- Richard Wilbur
- Hymn: A Stable Lamp is Lighted
- Peter De Vries
- Book: The Blood of the Lamb
- Denise Levertov
- Book: Selected Poems
- Xavier Beauvois
- Film: Of Gods and Men
- Yosuke Nakagawa
- Film: The Departures
- Kate Braestrop
- The House of Mourning
- https://themoth.org/storytellers/kate-braestrup
- St. John of Damascus
- Hymn: What Earthly Sweetness Remains Unmixed with Death
