Father Lambert Nwauzor, right, came from Nigeria for the dedication of the new Stations of the Cross at St. Blanche’s in Priest Lake. He is with his uncle, Father Reggie Nwauzor, middle, pastor at St. Catherine of Siena and St. Blanche parishes, and Deacon Derrick Hamm, left. About 100 attended the dedication and blessing. (ICR Photo/Emily Woodham)
By Emily Woodham
Staff Writer
PRIEST RIVER—On Aug. 23, Father Reginald Nwauzor dedicated and blessed new Stations of the Cross recently installed outdoors beside St. Blanche Catholic Church in Priest Lake. The sculptures for each of the stations are large enough to be seen from the highway that passes through the busy summer resort town. Even before the dedication, the Stations attracted visitors who were just passing by.
“One Sunday after Mass, I saw three women who were walking out of the Stations,” said Father Nwauzor, pastor at St. Blanche and St. Catherine of Siena Parishes in Priest River.
“When I talked to them, they were nearly in tears because they were so moved by the beauty of them. They were Protestants and had never seen the Stations of the Cross before. They were familiar with the Bible, but they said walking through the Stations made His sacrifice more real to them.”
Members of St. Blanche and St. Catherine of Siena Parishes in Priest River attend the blessing of the newly installed Stations of the Cross. (ICR Photo/Emily Woodham)
The outreach and impact of the Stations are exactly what Father Nwauzor and the parishioners who led the project, Stacy Reynolds and Elizabeth Willyard, had prayed for when they began planning its construction. “Now that the Stations are dedicated and blessed, they will be even more fruitful,” Father Nwauzor said.
“We wanted everyone to see that Jesus loves them,” Reynolds said.
“The design of the path and the placement of the stations were done in a way so that from any angle a passerby could see one of the sculptures.” The 12th Station, the Crucifixion, is the largest and can be seen most clearly from the highway and the school next to the church.
The idea for the Stations of the Cross came to Reynolds and Willyard individually and at different times. In 2016, Reynolds visited an outdoor installation of the Stations of the Cross at a parish, which used children’s drawings for each station. “I thought it would be so cool to have an outdoor Stations of the Cross at St. Blanche’s,” she said. Although she kept this desire in her prayers, she did not share it openly.
In 2018, Willyard went on a retreat with her daughter after her grandmother died. “My grandmother loved the Stations of the Cross,” Willyard said. During the retreat, Willyard and her daughter prayed the Stations of the Cross at an outdoor installation. “The Lord put it on my heart to have the Stations at St. Blanche’s. On the drive home, I told my daughter, Ella, about it.”
The next day, they went to Sunday Mass at St. Blanche’s. “After Mass ended, but before people left, Father Reggie said he needed to know what we should do with the property next to the church. So, I went to Father Reggie and said ‘I think I know what we need to do with the property—we need to put a Stations of the Cross there.’ He looked at me and said, ‘Let’s do it.’”
Reynolds and Willyard had met only a couple of months before and started a women’s group at St. Blanche’s. At their next meeting, about a week later, Willyard told Reynolds about using the property for the Stations of the Cross. Reynolds immediately became excited and told Willyard that she had been wanting to put the Stations of the Cross there for a long time.
“Stacy told me that she would help with whatever needed to be done,” Willyard continued. When Father Nwauzor talked to the parish council about the idea, he was asked about the needed funds. “Father told them that we would have the money in two weeks. And within two weeks, we had every penny.”
Stacy Reynolds using a trencher for the wiring of the Stations of the Cross. (ICR Photo/Emily Woodham)
“The Holy Spirit definitely wanted this to happen,” Reynolds said. Sculptures cut from stone were too expensive. However, Reynolds found a company in Chicago that makes statues out of fiberglass resin. “The statues were $1,200 each. We asked parishioners to sponsor a Station, and in two weeks, each Station had a sponsor. Everything was paid for.”
Parishioners and extended family members helped prepare the property for the Stations of the Cross. They had to clear out shrubbery to create a level path, dig a trench for wiring, place posts in cement and then set the housing for the statues.
A popular carpenter in the area offered to make the housing. “He’s a Protestant,” Reynolds said. “But he really loved the idea of the Stations of the Cross. So many Protestants think Catholics worship statues, and installing the Stations has given us an opportunity to talk about what we really believe. There’s been an ecumenical element to this.”
Not everything went smoothly, though. The COVID pandemic slowed down their plans. It wasn’t until 2021 that they could begin implementing their ideas. Other setbacks occurred with weather, which sometimes meant working in the snow and freezing cold. “When I was digging for the wiring, I found a St. Benedict medal about two inches down,” Reynolds said. “I found a St. Benedict medal at every station. No one has admitted to burying them, but I knew when I found them that no matter what the devil tried to do, the Stations were going to get done.”
One morning, they found that someone had hit the Station of the Crucifixion with a baseball bat until it cracked. Reynolds fixed the crack and will repaint it. But she is undaunted in her mission to keep the Stations visible, even at risk of vandalism.
“Jesus said we’re the light of the world. What good is your light if you put it under a bushel basket? Are you not going to be a Christian because you might get hurt? Having the Stations out in the world so that people can see them is a way of shining our light. We shouldn’t hide it.”
Reynolds said the response to the Stations of the Cross has been overwhelmingly positive. Personally, they have brought her closer to Jesus. “The Stations of the Cross help you walk that path with Jesus. He went through His trials and sufferings out of His love for us. It encourages us that we can get through our hard stuff. We can carry our crosses,” Reynolds added. “His Passion and the beauty that was brought from it was huge. It brings peace knowing that there is beauty that God can do with suffering. After all, we are asked to pick up our cross and carry it, and what better way to have than to walk the path of Jesus”
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