Around the walls in many Christian church buildings, there is a set of fourteen pictures or sculptures, each marked by a cross. These pictures tell the story of Jesus' journey to the Cross, beginning with His trial before Pilate and ending with Him being laid in the tomb.

Each of the fourteen 'stations' records an incident on this journey. But not all of these incidents are recorded in the Bible. For example, the sixth station shows Jesus wiping His face on a towel given to Him by a woman called Veronica. This incident does not appear in any of the Gospel stories.

During the week before Easter Sunday, many churches have services where people are invited to walk round the church building stopping at each of the stations. At each station, prayers are said or people stand in silence thinking about how Jesus suffered for them.

Many different artists from around the world have made or painted Stations of the Cross. Some of these artists have updated the story of Jesus' death, in order to talk about modern day problems. For example, in one modern set of Stations, painted by a South America artist, the tenth Station shows, not only Jesus being stripped bare, but also the rain forest behind Him.

La Via Crucis, a very reasonably priced set of posters showing traditional Italian Stations of the Cross, is available from St. Paul's Multimedia. To order the posters, telephone 0151-709 1328. Alternatively, you can download various Stations from different sites on the Internet.