This is the text placed on plaques next to the images that are meant to mimick the Stations of the Cross. It was created as a cut-up from text taken from an actual Stations of the Cross I found on the web.
I.
My Son,
How your eyes penetrate my soul to know my love for you.
For a brief moment we touch.
II.
“Hold me my Son!”
See the thorns pierce his scalp, the nails pierce his flesh,
Feel it pierce your skin, rub raw the place it lays.
III.
He is stripped.
A mother’s heart aflame
with desire.
His body,
his wounds emit forth a perfume of love.
IV.
A degrading act done upon my Son.
Hunger for him in new ways. You will embrace the cross in new ways.
V.
To a tree, nail him. The nails are so large, striking again and again, deeper and deeper. He groans for his mother. You will feel his wounds.
VI.
A mother’s pain is manifested in her heart, at her breasts. You will truly know pain in a deeper way. You will fall with him.
Amen.

Here is part of some Q& A I did for the Mother of God exhibit. Also, here are some images from the show.
Responses to Noelle’s Questions

Michelle Levante “A Season Of Healing” 2007
12 Photos Mounted onto Wooden Plaques And Shellacked

In what ways does your work manipulate the viewer? In what ways is your work a manipulation of sight and touch?

While my work manipulates the Catholic tradition of the Stations of the Cross, it’s based on a reaction to organized religions need to manipulate our sense of sexuality. Growing up in a passive Catholic family, I was introduced to a preponderous of graphic images of martyrs and of course Christ and the Virgin Mary. The overt piety, denial of sexuality and a glorification of suffering left a strong impression on me as a child. Female saints were heavily draped in fabric hiding their bodies to avoid giving lustful young boys a sexual object to look at. The male martyrs and figures of Christ on the other hand were presented naked, sensuous, in as much agony as ecstasy. How many young girls had their sexual awakening because of these images I wonder. Like the trees healing around the invasive metal object, we can be resilient to hypocrisy of what religions teaches women (and men) about our sexuality. We can heal ourselves and manipulate this into something we desire.

How do you create a conversation around the manipulation of women’s bodies?
There is such a long history, that it seems to come naturally, for the artists, institution, whatever. It is interesting that this is the assumption of what is happening in the show. The idea of Mother of God was to bring a sense of an empowered woman into the conversation of religion I believe. For me, giving the Virgin Mary an aggressively sexual voice was a way of finding a voice, however extreme, to women who are indoctrinated into obsessing over their own bodies, rather than the bodies they are sexually attracted to.

How does a “shared dialogue” and collective art process effect what you create? How does it manipulate the idea of the ‘individual” art creativity?

I was very interested in working collectively with a group of women. It had been a long time since art school and the trauma of the art critic. There competition and one upMANship was par for the course. But working with a group of women who have come together in this context was empowering, uplifting and had the true spirit of a communal experience. I doubt that my work would have changed much based on the gender of the participants, but I think that the comfort level on dealing with intimate and sometimes personal work led to more open discussions and ideas. It was a great experience.