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Intermountain Catholic

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IC photo by Barbara S. Lee

Jesus Falls the First Time, the third Station of the Cross, is found in Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Magna. Bernard "Paul" Chavez of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, created these stations, carving them out of bass wood. "First I had to lay them out in my mind, then begin carving," Chavez told the Intermountain Catholic. Some stations consist of four to five pieces of wood, intricately carved, then fit together. The Stations project took Chavez 14 years to complete, with each station taking between 300 and 400 hours from start to finish. The retired manager of the Federal Courthouse in Salt Lake City began the project in 1986 and finished it in 2004. A second generation Mexican-American originally from New Mexico, Chavez and his wife were married in Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Magna, in 1966. Creating hand-crafted stations for the church, was "a promise I’d made to myself," he said. IC photo by Barbara S. Lee