Tenth Station

An Episcopal Priest and Professor at Virgina theological Seminary, Rev. Patricia Lyons has described sacramental faith as “faith in which material ‘things,’ matter.” This is one way of thinking about Stations of the Cross. How does walking the way of Jesus help you: to see; to hear; to touch; to taste; to feel; to laugh; and to love?

The image of New York’s old tenements is hardly complete without lines of laundry hanging between each building. Like today, doing laundry was a public endeavor for most New Yorkers. But unlike today, they depended on their building’s laundry lines to dry everything out.

Jesus Stripped of His Garments

We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you: Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

When they came to a place called Golgotha (which means the place of a skull), they offered him wine to drink, mingled with gall; but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. And they divided his garments among them by casting lots. This was to fulfill the scripture which says, “They divided my garments among them; they cast lots for my clothing.”

They gave me gall to eat: And when I was thirsty they gave me vinegar to drink.

Let us pray.

Lord God, whose blessed Son our Savior gave his body to be whipped and his face to be spit upon: Give us grace to accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time, confident of the glory that shall be revealed; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen,

Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy Immortal One, Have mercy upon us.

In 2014 a Los Angeles-based deacon Scott Claassen received his Episcopal ordination in the least likely place: A laundromat.

"People are opened up [at Laundry Love] in a way they often aren’t in religious settings or in their daily lives…My ambitions as a deacon are to represent and inform people about God’s love for them, to serve those in need, to develop and serve the church, and to authentically engage life in each moment."