Stations of the Cross

There is a beautiful Catholic Church in downtown San Antonio right along the Riverwalk. For several years, we were parishioners there.  It was founded by German immigrants, and it is known as St. Joseph Catholic Church.  We had an opportunity to visit San Antonio last Fall, and we stopped in to make a brief visit with Our Lord.  I took the opportunity to take some pictures as well.

Here is a view from the back of the sanctuary.  The painting had been redone in the late 1990's, and it still looked wonderful.

Here is another view:

The Stations of the Cross are also beautiful.  My photographs here don't do them justice.  But poor photography or writing never kept me from blogging, so here we go.  I offer these for your meditation during Lent.

I like how the Stations are in German as well as English.

The First Station:

Jesus is condemned to death:

The Second Station:

Jesus carries His Cross:

The Third Station:

Jesus falls the first time:

The Fourth Station:

Jesus meets His afflicted Mother:

The Fifth Station:

Simon helps Jesus carry the Cross:

The Sixth Station:

Veronica wipes the face of Jesus:

The Seventh Station:

Jesus falls the second time:

The Eighth Station:

Jesus consoles the women of Jerusalem:

The Ninth Station:

Jesus falls the third time:

The Tenth Station:

Jesus is stripped of His garments:

The Eleventh Station:

Jesus is nailed to the Cross:

The Twelfth Station:

Jesus dies upon the Cross:

The Thirteenth Station:

Jesus is taken from the Cross:

The Fourteenth Station:

Jesus is laid in the sepulchre:

The altar is truly one of the most beautiful parts of the church.

Long after its founding, a department store called Joski's bought the land around the church.  They tried to buy the church land as well, but they were rebuffed.  So they built the store around the church and rectory, leaving a small parking lot for parishioners.  You can see the church in the center of the picture below:

Here is a zoomed in picture of the church.  

After this Joski's opened, folks started to refer to the church as 'St. Joski's' rather than St. Joseph.  Now Joski's is gone, and another store owns the buildings which surround our former parish.  I hope that St. Joseph remains for many years to come, for visitors of San Antonio and for the people who have attended the church for their whole lives.  Hopefully St. Joseph will never experience 'wreckovation' either.

Aerial photographs were actually taken from the Tower of the Americas.