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A Journey Through the Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension: A Visit to Indiana’s Shrine of Christ’s Passion.

FEATURE image: (detail) Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene, John 20:11-18.

The Shrine of Christ’s Passion in St. John, Indiana is much more than a sculpture park or roadside attraction. Through life-sized bronze sculptures, landscaped surroundings, Scripture, and meditation, it offers visitors an immersive experience of Christ’s Passion, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension while serving as a major regional destination for prayer, reflection, and religious art.

INTRODUCTION

A Serene Oasis in Northwest Indiana

The Shrine of Christ’s Passion is located on busy U.S. 41 at 10630 Wicker Avenue in St. John, Indiana—just a one-hour drive (about 40 miles) south of downtown Chicago and 90 minutes from the University of Notre Dame. Settled as a pioneer town in 1837, St. John still sits among rolling farm fields despite increasing modern development near the Indiana-Illinois state line.

Situated on the historic Wachter family farm, the 30-acre site features an array of multimedia and interactive attractions. Most visitors come to traverse the half-mile winding concrete pathway, which beautifully showcases over 40 life-sized bronze sculptures that dramatize the biblical Passion of Jesus Christ.

Journeying Through the Stations of the Cross

The journey begins inside a well-stocked gift shop before leading directly outdoors to the first dramatic scenes: Jesus at the Last Supper and praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. From there, visitors follow the 14 traditional Stations of the Cross. The trail concludes at the empty tomb, Jesus’s appearance to Mary Magdalene, and a dramatic depiction of the Ascension of the Risen Jesus into Heaven on Mount Olivet.

To build this massive spiritual destination, it required a decade of planning and over $10 million. To enhance the experience, each station features an orientation kiosk. At the push of a button, visitors can listen to a clear, brief English description and short meditation narrated by famed American television journalist Bill Kurtis.

The shrine opened in 2011 and added its latest attraction– namely, a re-creation of the rock-filled path up Mount Sinai to where Moses has received the 10 Commandments –in 2017.

Immersive Landscapes of the Holy Land

The broad concrete pathway is designed for an easy, meditative progression that fosters quiet reflection and personal discovery. The landscape architecture incorporates formed hills, carefully planted trees, bushes, grasses, and large boulders. This self-contained design effectively blocks out the outside world, beautifully evoking the arid climate and terrain of the Holy Land.

Upon exiting the gift shop—where all proceeds fund the upkeep of the shrine—the transition into the pastoral, biblical setting is immediate. While visitors share the trail with pilgrims from around the world, the layout provides ample space and freedom for a deeply personal, intimate experience.

A Space for Reflection and Exploration

Open 361 days a year, the prayer trail maintains a quiet, respectful atmosphere year-round. A large and impressive place, there are plenty of places to sit, rest, and take in the realistic sculpture art detailing “the greatest story ever told.” While a quick visit can be completed in about 30 minutes, visitors should allow at least an hour to fully savor the experience.

Beyond the main prayer trail, the grounds feature several other major attractions:

The Moses, Mount Sinai, and the 10 Commandments Trail
The Sanctity of Life Shrine
Our Lady of The New Millennium: A monumental, 34-foot-tall statue of the Virgin Mary crafted from over 8,000 pounds of stainless steel.

Visitor Information and Hours

The shrine is operated by a non-denominational, nonprofit private foundation, and admission to all attractions is completely free.

The Prayer Trail: Open year-round (weather permitting).

General Hours: Daily from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Extended Hours: Thursdays until 8:00 p.m.

Sources –
The Shrine of Christ’s Passion Official website – http://shrineofchristspassion.org/
Our Lady of the New Millennium – https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2011-03-04-ct-talk-mary-statue-0305-20110304-story.html

IMAGES FROM THE PRAYER TRAIL:

Main Entrance on U.S. 41 at 10630 Wicker Avenue in St. John, Indiana, minutes from the Illinois-Indiana state line. Just 40 minutes from downtown Chicago, there is ample free parking and tour buses are welcome.

The Gift Shoppe.

The Last Supper Luke 22:19

“And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”

Garden of Gethsemane Mark 14:34

“My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” Jesus said to them. “Stay here and keep watch.”

THE 14 STATIONS OF THE CROSS AT THE SHRINE OF CHRIST’S PASSION, ST. JOHN, INDIANA.

1. Jesus is condemned to death Matthew 27: 19-26.

“When Pilate saw that he was not succeeding at all, but that a riot was breaking out instead, he took water and washed his hands in the sight of the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood. Look to it yourselves.”…Pilate had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.”

2. Jesus carries His cross John 19:16-17

“Then Pilate handed him over to be crucified. The soldiers took charge of Jesus, who carried his own cross to a location called “The Place of a Skull,” known in Aramaic as Golgotha.”

3. Jesus falls for the first time Isaiah 53:1-3

“He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.”

4. Jesus meets His mother, Mary Lamentations 1:12

“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?
Look around and see.
Is any suffering like my suffering
that was inflicted on me..?”

5. Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the cross Luke 23:26

“They seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.”

6. Veronica wipes the face of Jesus Psalm 17:15

“As for me, I will be vindicated and will see your face;
when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness.”

7. Jesus falls for the second time Isaiah 53:4-6

“Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.”

8. Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem Luke 23:27-31

“A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. 28 Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children.”

9. Jesus falls for the third time Isaiah 53:10-11

“Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand….”

10. Jesus is stripped of His clothes Matthew 27:27-31

“They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him.”

11. Jesus is nailed to the cross Luke 23:33-34

“When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left.”

12. Jesus dies on the cross Luke 23:44-49

“Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.”

13. Jesus is taken down from the cross Mark 15:39

“When the centurion who stood facing him saw how Jesus breathed his last he said, ‘Truly this man was the Son of God!'”

14. Jesus is placed in the tomb Luke 23:50-53

“Going to Pilate, Joseph of Arimathea asked for Jesus’ body. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid.”

The Resurrection of Jesus. Matthew 28.

1 After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning,^* Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.

2 And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, approached, rolled back the stone, and sat upon it.

3 His appearance was like lightning and his clothing was white as snow.

4 The guards were shaken with fear of him and became like dead men.

5 Then the angel said to the women in reply, “Do not be afraid! I know that you are seeking Jesus the crucified.

6 He is not here, for he has been raised just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene John 20:16

“Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!”

MORE of the Prayer Trail:

The Ascension Acts of the Apostles 1:9

“…Jesus was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.”

The Ascension of Jesus: The Double Account of Luke the Evangelist

The Ascension of Jesus is described twice in the New Testament, with both accounts originating from Luke the Evangelist. The first description appears at the very end of his Gospel (Luke 24:50–53), while the second opens the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 1:6–12).

In Acts, Luke introduces a crucial narrative element: a forty‑day period (Acts 1:3) during which the risen Jesus appears to the apostles, teaches them, and prepares them for their upcoming mission. This specific timeframe is not emphasized in the Gospel account. This suggests that Luke separates the Resurrection and the Ascension in Acts not because he inherited conflicting traditions, but because it serves a distinct narrative purpose. Acts utilizes these forty days to firmly situate the apostles within the larger framework of Israel’s covenant history, framing the early Church as the direct continuation of God’s saving work.

Reorienting the Expectations of the Kingdom

Once Jesus rises from the dead, the disciples fully recognize him as the Messiah. It is therefore understandable that, in Acts, they ask whether he will now restore Israel’s political kingdom. Luke, writing for future generations of Christians, places a deliberately open‑ended reply in Jesus’s mouth.

The exact timing of the parousia—the Second Coming—is not for them to know. Instead, their task is entirely different: to wait for the Holy Spirit, whose power will transform them into witnesses “to the ends of the earth.” Jerusalem, the central site of Jesus’s Passion and Resurrection, thus becomes the launching pad for this worldwide mission.

Symbolism and Eschatology on Mount Olivet

Acts adds further symbolic depth to the Ascension through specific biblical motifs:

The Cloud: Jesus is taken from their sight by a cloud, a classic biblical sign of the divine presence and a motif heavily associated with end‑times imagery (Luke 21:27).
The Location: The event occurs on the Mount of Olives, a location already deeply charged with eschatological expectation.
The Two Figures: As Jesus is lifted up, two figures in dazzling garments appear. They match the same angelic type who initially announced his birth (Luke 2:9) and later proclaimed his Resurrection (Luke 24:4–7).

The message delivered by these figures directly links the Ascension to the Second Coming, promising that the Jesus who is taken up in glory “will return in the same way you saw him go” (Acts 1:11).

From Incarnation to Glorification

Christian tradition understands the mystery of Christ by tracing a single, unbroken arc from the Incarnation to the Ascension. This trajectory begins at the Annunciation (Luke 1:26–38), when the eternal Word—the One who “was with God and…was God” (John 1:1)—takes on human nature in the womb of Mary. In this pivotal moment, the divine and human are permanently united in the Person of Jesus.

The Ascension brings this union to its ultimate fulfillment. Here, the “new, saved man” enters into the very life of the Father, revealing the ultimate destiny of redeemed humanity. Christ’s glorified body becomes the perfect expression of what humanity is truly meant to be in God: a life whose very mode of existence is love, for “God is love” (1 John 4:16). In heaven, the God‑Man embodies this reality completely.

Pentecost and the Indwelling Presence

The Ascension is immediately followed by Pentecost, the moment when the apostles receive the promised Holy Spirit from the risen Christ. From that historic day forward, the early believers speak not only of Christ exalted in heaven, but of “Christ in us”—the indwelling presence that dynamically makes all believers active participants in his risen life.

From Li-Li to Lee Miller: The Making of an Artist Before Paris, 1907-1925.

Lee Miller’s extraordinary artistic career did not emerge suddenly in Paris or the Surrealist movement, but was rooted in the unique environment of her Poughkeepsie upbringing, where family affluence, her father’s intense photographic interests, early exposure to cameras, artistic encouragement, and her rebellious independent personality shaped the creative force she would become.

The Millers, Theodore, Elizabeth Lee, Erik, John and Florence, in 1923. Public Domain.

By John P. Walsh

In the first decades of the twentieth century it became increasingly common practice for established American families to reflect and display their personal lives as well as social status in the timely gathering of photographic portraits. Progressively, the American family unit grew more compact in tandem with its greater personal affluence in an economy increasingly dominated by mechanization and the manufacture of consumer goods, all of which worked relentlessly to replace farming as the engine of American enterprise.

The Millers of Poughkeepsie, New York – a seventeenth century town eighty miles north of New York City which in the eighteenth century had progressed to an early state capital and, by 1910, a significant stop on the railroad line¹ – shared that prototypical family form as they gathered for their family portraits between 1914 and 1932.

After 1900, camera availability and quality had markedly improved. Moving into the popular culture, photography allowed the display of a family image that is relaxed and natural as well as a time capsule of its members. In the instance of the Millers their formal and informal photographic portraits capture what appears to be a cohesive family unit expressive of their times. They are within a thoughtfully creative pose and posture likely managed by the head of the household, Theodore Miller (1872-1971), an energetic lifelong amateur photographer.

These portraits are ambitious for an aesthetic which manifests as a controlled vibrancy in the sitters as well as overall composition. The outcome for these portraits which all include Lee Miller as a child and teenager are photographs that combine the qualities of the fine arts with the more delicate workings of a machine.

The extensive photographs taken by her father, Theodore Miller, unintentionally document the formation of a future artist, providing rare visual evidence of the circumstances that nurtured one of the twentieth century’s most remarkable photographers.

Lee Miller at about eight months old, c. December 1907. Taken by her father Theodore Miller, the amateur photographer would photograph his daughter near incessantly from her childhood into adulthood. Part chronicle, part creative project, their photographer-model relationship could be unusual as he photographed his daughter nude at times over the same time period. Public Domain.

Lee Miller at 8 years in a photograph by her father, Theodore Miller, in 1915. Public Domain.

The Millers, headed by highly credentialed mechanical engineer and amateur photographer Theodore Miller and his wife Florence (1881-1954), saw the couple produce a handsome family: brothers John MacDonald (December 15, 1905-2008) and Erik Theodore (born May 22, 1910-?) and middle daughter, Elizabeth Lee, later Lee Miller, Lady Penrose (April 23, 1907-1977).

In childhood, Lee was curious, had her special interests and likes, especially the newly invented movies, and was encouraged by her parents to be free and active. Rambunctious in youth, Li-Li (Elizabeth Lee’s nickname) expressed herself as a sort of tomboy and later a definite teenage rebel. In school she was often undisciplined and, as the ringleader, provocative.²

When she was ten years old in 1917, her father gave Li-Li an inexpensive and popular Kodak Brownie to take photographs. Kodak used the box camera to sell more products and popularize photography. Almost more like a toy, the Brownie series was first introduced in 1900 and extensively marketed to children,³ although they were taken by soldiers into World War I.

Theodore Miller’s experimentation with photographic technologies exposed Lee to creative and technical aspects of image-making from an early age. She received a Kodak Brownie camera at age ten, introducing her directly to photography.

Kodak Brownie similar to the first camera Lee Miller had when she was 10 years old that was given to her by her father. PHOTO: “Kodak Brownie Target Six-20” by John Kratz is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

In the age of American invention, teenage Li-Li Miller, intelligent and creative, was fascinated by her father’s enduring experimentation with new camera gadgets including stereoscopy. That photographic application produced two-dimensional images which, when combined in the brain, gave the perception of three-dimensional depth.⁴

Traditional stereoscopy. PHOTO: “Stereoscopy” by designrecherche is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

The family’s photographs serve as both personal records and carefully composed artistic images.

The Millers in 1914. Florence, Erik, Lee, John, Theodore. Public Domain.

Lee Miller and her mother in 1914. Public Domain.

In an almost desperate search for an academic program to constructively engage their daughter’s interest, the Millers placed Li-Li in and out of several schools around Poughkeepsie. Lee traipsed through Governor Clinton school to Oakwood Quaker to St. Mary’s Catholic to Eastman Business College to Putnam Hall known as the prep school for local Vassar College.

Even with extra-curricular dance and theater activities as well as sojourns into creative writing – along with extended trips to New York City and, accompanying her father on business trips, such as to Puerto Rico on a cruise – by 1920 Li-Li seemed only most uniquely prepared to embrace the intrepid nonchalance of the flapper whose age had arrived thanks to the appearance of This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

“The Flapper” as conceived by American illustrator Frank Xavier Leyendecker (1876-1924) for Life magazine in 1922. It seemed by the start of the 1920’s, the teenage rebel and provacateur Lee Miller was ready to embrace the Flapper’s nonchalant image. PHOTO: “‘The Flapper’ (1922)” by Swallowtail Garden Seeds is marked with CC PDM 1.0. This work is in the public domain.

Lee was intelligent, strong-willed, unconventional, and often rebellious in school and social settings. Her interests in movies, dance, theater, travel, and creative expression reflected a broader artistic temperament.

The Millers in 1920. Lee, Erik, Theodore, Florence and John. The teenager bobbed and later permed her golden hair to match a new decade’s fashionable style as she looked for the next exit out of Poughkeepsie. Public Domain.

At the end of a record-cold spring of 1925, Li-Li, called spoiled and well-to-do by many of her neighborhood classmates, took a ship for Paris, France, on May 29 of that year. The Millers’ intention was not to internationalize the shortcomings of their daughter’s educational career, but to assist in the rebellious 18-year-old’s discovery and development of a talent and skill to match her artistic temperament.⁵

No one could predict in 1925 that after spending this short period of time in Europe as a teenager, Li-Li Miller of Poughkeepsie, New York, will, as Lee Miller, finally return to Europe to spend most of the rest of her life, over 50 years. In those adult years, Miller became a celebrated artist’s and cinema’s muse as well as an important World War II photographer.

By the 1920s, Lee embraced the spirit of the modern flapper, seeking independence beyond her hometown. Her 1925 departure for Paris marked the transition from gifted, restless teenager to the future photographer, model, muse, Surrealist, and war correspondent she would become.

In the cold spring of 1925, Lee Miller is joined by her father as the 18-year-old Lee boards the ship that will take her to Paris to study. The family’s hopes include that in Paris Lee will find and develop some talented skill to express her artistic temperament. Public Domain.

FOOTNOTES:

1. Burke, Carolyn, Lee Miller: A Life, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2006, p.6.
2. Haworth-Booth, Mark, The Art of Lee Miller, Yale University Press, 2007, p. 14; provocative-Burke, p. 24.
3. Roberts, Hilary, Lee Miller: A Woman’s War, Thames & Hudson, 2015, p. 190.
4. see Lincoln, Tom, Exercises in Three Dimensions, 2011. http://www.lincolntom.com/pages/Exercises%20in%203D.html- retrieved April 17, 2019
5. Roberts, p.194; https://thestarryeye.typepad.com/weather/april/page/2/