Los Angeles Church Hosts 'Multi-Sensory' Stations Of The Cross Using Yoga
Antonia Blumberg ("The Huffington Post," March 28, 2015)
Anne Kelley, a Seattle-based attorney, was looking for a way to engage with
the stations of the cross on a deeper level when she stumbled upon the
idea of incorporating yoga into the practice.
Traditionally observed on Good Friday, the stations of the cross are a
series of 14 moments in the final hours of Jesus Christ's life, before his
crucifixion. Every year, many Christians reflect upon the stations as a
spiritual exercise.
“My inspiration was that if we used our whole body, heart and soul to focus
on the Stations, we could better enter into [Jesus'] suffering and open
ourselves to [a] deeper relationship with God,” Kelley said in an email to
The Huffington Post.
Kelley recruited the help of yoga instructor Cynthia Simon and artist Eric
Armusik to bring her project, called "Body in Prayer," to fruition. Simon
helped identify the positions and movements that would best capture the
spirit of the stations, while Armusik artistically represented them in a
series
of 14 paintings that now hang in Kelley's local Seattle parish.
The Body in Prayer series is meant to help people meditate on Jesus, said
Kelley, and is not meant "to port any of the stated spiritual outputs of
yoga in the transcendental or Hindu sense." Because yoga is now so popular,
said Kelley, she hopes the series will provide a recognizable and "great
shorthand way of getting people to move their bodies into positions that [are]
relatively safe, in a repeatable, reliable way.”
On Saturday, Holy Family Church in Los Angeles will host the Body in Prayer
yoga stations of the cross for the sixth year in a row, offering
participants a "multi-sensory meditation" on Jesus' last day. The following
day is
Palm Sunday in the Christian tradition and the official start of Holy Week
leading up to Easter.
"It is [Anne's] intention to draw people back into a reflection and
meditation on what Jesus did for us when he suffered and died," Frank Ponnet,
director of adult education at Holy Family Church, told HuffPost. "It has been
a beautiful meditation to begin Holy Week.”
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