Jesse A. Schroeder

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On this past Tuesday Joel and I worked with students at GCCS to put together a modified "Stations of the Cross" experience. It ended up being incredibly serene, powerful, simple, surprisingly integrated with student art and input, and overall a meaningful experience for the high school. I've put a few pictures below in a Picasa slideshow with titles that explain the stations.



The most impacting thing for me was getting a glimpse into the spiritual lives of the students. Seeing how serious they took the experience (some spent over an hour walking through) reminded me that each person has a genuine spiritual life that goes through ups and downs every day, even when it doesn't seem that way to outside observers. As I walked through the stations, reading the words students had written, I felt the burden of their guilt and sin, and I felt their sincere desire to connect with God. They were very honest in their reflections and prayers, and I could feel it in the atmosphere around the stations throughout the day.

I felt so grateful for the privilege to experience this with the students and to share in some small part of their spiritual lives. As I stepped back and looked at the full blackboard at the final station with many honest prayers and commitments written to God, and imagined to full weight of a world of prayers and souls offered to God every day, I was in awe of the love of the divine that is interwoven throughout a hurting world, but is blessed in quite moments of intersection with beauty, truth and inner reflection.