Stations

Fridays of Lent. Happy are those who understand that Lent without participation in the Stations of the Way of the Cross loses a lot of its meaning and power. Happy are those who in the hectic schedules of their daily lives cut out a sufficient chunk of time for active participation and meditation of the Stations and the Passion of Christ. Nothing helps us grow faster and mature in the spiritual life and union with Living God than meditation on the Passion of Our Lord which has its summit in the Sacrifice of Eucharist. Every Saint throughout the ages will attest to this...


I go back in my memories to times when I discovered this truth. Times when I was still in secondary school and then i nearly days of my formation in major seminary in Kraków. I loved to do the Stations alone in the chapel of Little Servant Sisters of Mary Immaculate (where I celebrate Holy Mass now whenever I go back home, as the sisters' provincial house and the sick and retired sisters' house, where the chapel in question is located, is next to our house in Kraków), when I was home for holidays as a seminarian. With my small notebook and pen, I used to write down my thoughts and reflections. I keep these notes, they helped me to grow deeper and deeper in love of the Passion of Christ and understand my own suffering, loneliness and struggle to fulfill the Will of God, against all odds, in Kiabakari.

That is why precisely, when I was constructing the Divine Mercy Shrine in Kiabakari, I desired to have a special Stations of the Way of the Cross, which will reflect upon the mystery of the Passion of Our Lord and its interaction with our daily life - how the Passion of Christ sheds light upon the mystery of our own suffering and gives it a true salvific meaning. And on the other hand - how our own passion and choices we make in accepting it or rejecting it - make impact on Christ suffering, as we find ourselves as actors and active participants on Christ's Way of the Cross.

And this is how we did - my friend, artist Florian Ludovick Kaija, with cooperation with his brother Alex Ndibalema. I gave thoughts and ideas to Florian and he turned them into sketches which he proposed to me for further discussion and approval. After this stage was finished and we were satisfied with pictorial representation of the leading ideas for each Station of the Way of the Cross, the work to translate the drafts on the walls of the shrine began.

After 15 years since the work was done, I am still satisfied and happy whenever I look at them and even more so, when I lead the meditations of the Stations of the Way of the Cross during Lent, just I am about  to do this afternoon.

The Way of the Cross of the Son of Man intertwined with the way of the cross of sons of men...

After a few years since the blessing of the Stations done by the Archbishop of Mwanza on the day of the dedication of the shrine on July 3, 1997, many people started to ask me to preserve the Stations in the form of a book of meditations on them. It took me several more years to finally to heed to their calls and the outcome was the book 'Njia ya Msalaba' written bilingual - in Polish and Kiswahili - for both markets - in Poland and Tanzania. I am particularly pleased with the graphic side of the publication. The book was published beautifully. The link to the book is here. And had its success among readers, I must admit.

The First Station (as an example)

Welcome to Kiabakari! Let's follow Christ in His Way of the Cross so we can better understand and accept our own ways of our crosses and turn them into a powerful weapon of destruction of evil in our own lives and in the world and turn our own negative approach to suffering in our lives into positive usage of it for own salvation, growth, strength and wisdom which we can share with others, in compassion and love of neighbors in need.