When Josh Ritter was in high school, he wanted to play Jesus in the annual Living Stations presentation every Lent at St. Paul in Ham Lake.

He did this twice, in 2007 as a high school junior, and again in 2008 as a senior. 

Years later, he again would serve as a reminder of Christ’s life, but in a more unusual way — by dying at the same age. 

After serving in the U.S. Navy in California after high school, Ritter moved back to Minnesota in 2018. He bought a house in Coon Rapids in 2023. A little before 2 a.m. Nov. 26, 2023, he called his mother, Marian, and they talked for about half an hour. These conversations were commonplace, and Marian cherished them. 

But this one would be their last. Sometime between the end of that phone call and the following Monday, Josh suffered a brain aneurysm and died at his home. He was 33. 

That he died at the same age as Jesus was not lost on the Ritter family, which includes Marian’s husband, Gary, and their other three children. Father Jim Livingston, pastor of the Ham Lake church, also acknowledged it at Josh’s funeral Mass Dec. 5. 

Just one month after the funeral, it was time to start preparing for this year’s Living Stations, which youth of the parish have presented in the main church every year during Lent since 1995. Gary and Marian helped start it with Barb Skillings and a handful of other volunteers. Skillings and the Ritters are still involved. 

With much important work about to begin, the question arose: What would Gary and Marian do about this year’s presentation, which was scheduled for three consecutive evenings March 13, 14 and 15? Would the grief of losing their son keep them away for the first time in 29 years? 

No. The thought of stepping back simply didn’t cross their minds. 

“It’s these kids,” Gary explained. This year, 130 young people from seventh through 12th grade stepped forward to put on the presentation, which includes not only the standard 14 Stations, but scenes showing the life of Jesus before the First Station, plus the final scene, the Resurrection, known as the 15th Station. 

As they pondered the upcoming preparations and the hours of work ahead, they took the whole matter to prayer, and Marian voiced an answer that spoke for them both. 

“I’m doing it because I know that this is where Jesus wants me,” she said. Along with taking on their normal roles — Gary narrating and Marian working on costumes — they and the entire cast plus the adult volunteers dedicated this year’s presentations to Josh and Adam Christoffel, who played the role of Jesus in 1999 and 2000 and died just two weeks after Josh. 

Over nearly three decades, Gary and Marian have become bonded to this annual tradition and to the youth who participate, many of whom participate every year they are eligible. 

Josh was one of them. Starting at age 5, he played other parts (younger children are sometimes allowed to be in it, if their parents are involved), and was developing an interest in playing the role of Christ. 

“I just remember him wanting it so bad,” Marian said. He received the role in 2007. 

There are no auditions for the role of Christ. Selection for the role is not based on acting ability, Skillings noted. Rather, the person who is picked — this year, it was senior Tim Klimisch — earns the role by displaying faith, virtue and character. In other words, the person selected is the one who lives in the most Christ-like manner. 

Here’s how it works: A team of parish leaders, including youth ministers, gathers to discuss possible young men for the role. After the team comes to an agreement, someone, often Skillings, reaches out to the boy who has been chosen. 

The people who select Jesus put their trust in the Holy Spirit to get it right, Skillings said. 

This method has borne fruit for 29 years. In the early days, a teen would play the role for two years, as Josh did. Now, a new person is selected every year, always a high school senior. 

Skillings remembers what Josh was like when he played Jesus, and what he brought to the role over two years. 

“He was very gifted in voice and guitar,” she said. “And he loved praise and worship, even from (when he was) a little boy. When he would be here at Mass, you could hear him sing (from) all the way across the other side of the church.” 

The current youth minister of the parish, Joy Carlson, is a year older than Josh and was there for his first year of playing Jesus. Her husband, Andrew, played Jesus in 2005 and 2006. She played people in the crowd in her earlier years, then played Veronica, who wipes the face of Jesus in the Sixth Station. That same year, Josh was playing Jesus, which gave her a close look at his expressions and what he put into the role. 

“He, I would say, really was trying to portray the face of Christ,” she said. She remembered “the sincerity that he brought to that, the humility that he brought to that. … This performance is so much more than a performance. It’s really a prayer.” 

Gary and Marian said that when playing Jesus, Josh felt the heaviness of the cross — literally. One year, the cross used for the presentation broke during a rehearsal within days of the performances. Wondering aloud what they would do, a teen said he would make one. It arrived just in time for the first performance. 

The cross was made of oak, and life-sized. “It weighed a ton,” Gary said. 

No matter. Josh carried it the first night and never complained, even though it landed on him during at least one of the three falls of Jesus portrayed in the Stations, which caused an injury to his back. 

Whoever plays Jesus understands what the role entails because the person usually has been involved in the performance for at least a few years. Such was the case for Klimisch, this year’s Jesus, which is why he hesitated to accept the role when Skillings informed him at a youth gathering at the parish that he had been chosen. 

“I said, ‘I’ll have to think about it,’” he said. “I don’t really like being put in the center. I like to be more on the side.” 

Just a day or two later, he texted Skillings that he would do it. All the way through the four-hour weekly practices on Sundays, including the final dress rehearsal, he did not disappoint, Skillings said. 

“He’s just a wonderful young man,” she said. “He gives direction (to other cast members) as he’s playing Jesus. When we were practicing, he would give directions to the soldiers because he’s been a soldier.” 

One of this year’s soldiers was Klimisch’s best friend, Joe Brounstein, also a senior. Part of his role was pounding the nails into Jesus’ hands and feet during the crucifixion scene. The two boys attend and drive to PSEO classes together, and talked about their respective roles and gave each other tips. 

“Stations is a really incredible experience,” Brounstein said. “It’s a chance for me to grow deeper in my faith and to evangelize to other people about the love of God. My conversion story actually happened through (the) Stations. Just acting out the Passion and death of Christ is so different from just reading it in the Bible. You’re experiencing it, you’re feeling it, you’re in it. And it has so much more meaning that way.” 

He called it “the biggest kind of evangelization thing that I do all year, and I love it, and that’s why I keep going back.” 

Father Livingston saw it for the first time in 2017, less than a year after becoming pastor of the parish. 

“It just took my breath away,” he said. “It’s among the most powerful things that happen here.” 

Living Stations wouldn’t be possible without people like Gary and Marian. “Both of them have really given their heart and soul to the whole production and program,” Father Livingston said. 

Before practices in the church on Sundays, cast members and adult volunteers have 45-minute prayer gatherings. Those take place in the chapel, and people are invited to write down prayer intentions. After that, they spread out in the main church and take some time to pray for those coming to see the event. 

These experiences create new friendships and deepen existing ones. Katie Meuer, who played Mary this year, said it is one of the things she likes about being in Living Stations, and why she came back this year after a one-year absence last year. 

“I feel like I’ve gotten so much closer with (other cast members),” she said. “It’s just a lot of time that you’re with people, especially the girl who plays Mary Magdalene, Emily (Johnson), because she’s just right there (in the scene depicting the 13th Station, in which Jesus is taken down from the cross). I feel like I’ve gotten to know her a lot better. Just being so close with people physically (in the scenes) has helped me to grow in relationship.” 

Meuer was one of nine high school seniors — the maximum age for being on stage — in this year’s group. Odds are, at least some of them will come back to serve as adult volunteers. The Ritters’ youngest son, Dominic, helped this year. In 1999, he played baby Jesus in the opening scene when he was just 7 weeks old. 

Then there are people like Skillings, who at 76 has given no thought to stopping. She is driven by a passion that likely will never go away. 

“It’s really all about the teens,” she said. “They touch my heart. I feel called. And, as old as I am, I still feel connected, (still feel) pretty close to them. I want them not to just know about Jesus. I want them to know Jesus, to come (to him), to want his love and to love him back.”

Grieving mothers 

After the final night of Living Stations, Marian Ritter and Joan Christoffel talked with each other about the presentation and losing their sons. Josh Ritter and Adam Christoffel, both of whom played Jesus in Living Stations, died just over two weeks apart late in 2023. Ritter was 33 and Christoffel was 40. Cast members and adult volunteers dedicated this year’s Living Stations to them. 

“That whole presentation was absolutely phenomenal,” Joan Christoffel said. “I felt like I was at a theater. I thought it was awesome.” 

One scene, in particular, moved her: the 13th Station, in which Mary holds the body of Jesus after it is taken down from the cross. 

“When I was watching that, I was just bawling my eyes out,” said Christoffel, who lives in Coon Rapids with her husband, John. Likewise, Ritter felt strong emotions during that scene. She said she “just lost it” when she watched that scene during a dress rehearsal. 

Both women said they now understand Mary’s grief more deeply. 

“I’m sad that we both know what it’s like,” Joan Christoffel said. But, the chance to talk with each other after the presentation was “very comforting for both of us.”