We have entered the great season of Lent—the forty days of preparing for the Easter. Since my childhood, the Lenten devotion of attending the Stations of the Cross has been an important part of my year. Let me give a little background on this devotional.
What are the Stations of the Cross?
The “Stations of the Cross” refers to a series of 14 images arranged numerically around a church nave. The station markers range from beautiful paintings, plaques with reliefs to simple crosses with a numeral in the center. Each tableau or marker represents these scenes of Christ’s passion:
- Jesus is condemned to death
- Jesus carries His cross
- Jesus falls the first time
- Jesus meets His mother
- Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the cross
- Veronica wipes the face of Jesus
- Jesus falls the second time
- Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem
- Jesus falls the third time
- Jesus is stripped of His garments
- Crucifixion: Jesus is nailed to the cross
- Jesus dies on the cross
- Jesus is taken down from the cross
- Jesus is laid in the tomb
n a way, they make a path for us to follow Jesus on His way to Calvary. We stop at each station, pray a selected prayer and reflect on the scene. We can pray this devotional alone or in a group. Most Catholic churches offer a common time for praying the Stations of the Cross during Lent.
Why the Stations of the Cross?
The object of this devotional is to help the faithful make a spiritual pilgrimage of prayer by meditating on the key scenes of Christ’s suffering and death. We can also offer our Stations as an Act of Reparation for the sufferings of Jesus Christ.
One closing thought you can pray the Stations of the Cross in the privacy of your home. You don’t need to be at a church – you can mentally picture the scene of each station.
If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself? (Luke 9:22-25)
Artwork: Titian. Christ Carrying the Cross. 1575. Oil. Museo Del Prado, Madrid, Spain.