California Campus to Offer “Drive-through Stations of the Cross” on Fridays

To aid the prayers of the faithful during this time of pandemic, Thomas Aquinas College, California, will offer a “Drive-through Stations of the Cross” this Friday, April 3, from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m., and on Good Friday, April 10, from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m.

“Six years ago a member of our Board of Governors, Robert Barbera, blessed our California campus with a beautiful outdoor Stations of the Cross,” says Dean John Goyette. “The stations run alongside a small road on the lower portion of the campus, which we will open up to anyone who would like to spend a few minutes prayerfully meditating on Our Lord’s death and passion.”

Thomas Aquinas College, California, is located at 10,000 Ojai Road in Santa Paula. To maintain social-distancing protocols, the College asks that those who visit the Stations remain in their vehicles. Staff will be on hand to direct traffic on and off of the campus. Although the College will not be able to provide printed prayer materials, the traditional prayers of St. Alphonsus Liguori can be downloaded from the College website. 

Each one of the outdoor Stations contains a statuary tableau — e.g., Our Lord with Simon of Cyrene, or Our Lord meeting His mother — housed in a shelter of Mediterranean columns supporting Spanish-tile roofs. Their course, which begins by the original Ferndale Ranch gate at the entrance to campus, runs alongside the College’s three spring-fed ponds and slopes uphill, like the road to Calvary. The Stations alternate across the drive, with the odd numbers on the west side and even numbers to the east, mirroring the sequence of the Via Crucis in Jerusalem.

Those who cannot make it to the California campus — or who would like to pray the Stations at other times — may wish to pray with the students of Thomas Aquinas College via this five-minute video.