These beautiful modern Stations of the Cross were sculpted by Ken Thompson for St. Mel’s Cathedral in Longford, County Longford in Ireland, to replace the wooden ones burned in a fire at Christmas 2009.
The Cathedral was badly damaged but the beautiful new sculptures are part of the resurrected Cathedral. (It is the local home Cathedral of Fr. Jim Leavy known to many of us in the Leeds Diocese).
Why show two Stations of the Cross at Easter tide?
13th Station
You may notice that in the 13th Station that the inscription is “Indeed this Man was the Son of God”. (Mk. 15:39.)
And if you look at the foot of the Cross, the Devil, depicted from one old tradition as a mouse, is rushing headlong into the trap!
Christ has overcome evil.
14th Station
In the 14th Station Jesus lies on what is portrayed as an altar, as the Eucharist.
Looking out of the door the Cross is growing green shoots: Life…The inscription: “Why seek you the living among the dead?” was the question the angel put to the women rushing to the Tomb.
The angel proclaims “Gloria”!
The word NIKA above the entrance to the Tomb means VICTORY and the Tomb is no longer dark but full of light.
When Fr. Jim Leavy showed me a book of these amazing sculptures they made an impression on me. The Lenten Practice of making the Stations of the Cross transitions to the Resurrection. Instead of having a 15th Station of the Resurrection, which increasingly occurs in modern Stations, we are visually made aware of Christ’s Resurrection in signs and scripture. Christ rises from the dead, the Cross is transformed to a source of life and we are given the Eucharist.
As an older person who has lived through many Lents and Easters, like many of us, I am aware of the cyclical nature of life and death, death and life. There are many struggles, pain and disappointments but also hope, happiness and life.
After the dark comes the dawn…After Lent comes Easter…
Pippa Bonner, March 2024
