For centuries, the Church has encouraged us to pray the Stations of the Cross as a way to draw closer to Christ and gain the strength to carry our own crosses by meditating on His Passion. Yet even while doing so, many of us have had trouble imagining and contextualizing the sorrowful events of that day and even the horrid details of the Crucifixion.

In these prayerful pages, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, longtime secretary to Pope Benedict XVI, remedies that failure of our imaginations. Here he vividly depicts Jesus’ final, slow, sorrowful passage through the narrow, dusty streets of Jerusalem, out the gate in the city’s wall, and unto Golgotha, where our Lord is crucified.

With the help of these powerful meditations, you’ll come to feel as if you’ve been transported all the way back to Jerusalem, to that grim day in A.D. 33, and stand there now, a direct witness to it.

Archbishop Gänswein’s stunning reflections on the Stations of the Cross will give life to your own Stations of the Cross devotions and awaken in you a love and sympathy for our Lord greater than any you have felt before.