Keeping Vigil With Jesus
As we inch closer to Holy Week; we journey with Jesus through the Lenten wilderness and now we accompany Him to the cross.
This is where many of us want to stop short. We may find ourselves thinking, I’ve already surrendered. I’ve already let go. I’ve already ‘given something up’. Do I really have to die? Do I really have to be like Him “in His death,” as it says in Philippians 3:10?
Jesus’ death is the hardest mystery of our faith. It confronts our instinct to preserve ourselves, to avoid suffering, to move quickly toward resurrection without lingering in what feels unbearable. Yet there are sacred lessons here — lessons we can only learn by walking intimately with Him on the path He Himself chose to walk.
This is the heart of our practice of keeping vigil with Jesus from Gethsemane to the tomb through the Stations of the Cross.
Traditionally rooted in Catholic and mainline traditions, the Stations of the Cross invite us to prayerfully reflect on fourteen moments from Jesus’ final day — beginning with His condemnation by Pontius Pilate and ending at the tomb. It is a devotional journey of remembrance, compassion, and presence.
At our Lent Mini Retreat, we will enter this sacred path through Visio Divina, the practice of praying with a sacred image; as well as Restorative Yoga and our holy imagination. We will move from viewing physical images depicting Jesus’ final day, to prayerfully “see” with the eyes of the heart, while in supported postures of rest. We will embody surrender, grief, trust, and love.
This practice may feel challenging. We are being asked to stay present to suffering — His and our own. But we do not do so alone. We keep vigil together. We remain with Christ in the mystery. And even as we walk toward the tomb, we trust the deeper truth: death does not have the final word.
If you’re looking for a way to enter into the season with honesty and vulnerability, to embrace an experience that will inevitably deepen your intimacy with Jesus, this is a mini retreat you will not want to miss.
