by Carole Anne Scott

Perhaps like me, your memories of Lent are linked with participating in the Stations of the Cross. Each Lenten Friday afternoon of our grammar-school days, carrying our little red devotional prayer booklets, we children flocked to church to pray the Stations. The service featured hymns in Latin, and at each Station, the priest said the words, “We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless Thee because by Thy holy cross Thou hast redeemed the world.” For the most part, the accompanying prayers stressed our sinful nature and our need for a repentance completed by God’s loving forgiveness.

The Stations of the Cross are a lot different today. Instead of chastising the sinner, the prayers tend to link our everyday sufferings to those of Jesus. In doing so, they call us to true conversion of heart, to the acting out in our own lives of the Gospel message of social justice and selfless sacrifice.

As just one example of this new type of Stations of the Cross prayer, I offer the following selection from Clarence Enzler’s devotional booklet entitled “Everyone’s Way of the Cross,” at the Second Station: “Christ speaks: ‘This cross, this chunk of tree, is what my Father chose for me. The crosses you must bear are largely the products of your daily life. And yet my Father chose them, too, for you. Receive them from his hands. Take heart, my other self, I will not let your burdens grow one ounce too heavy for your strength.’ I reply: ‘My Jesus, Lord I take my cross, I welcome the monotony that often marks my day, discomforts of all kinds, the summer’s heat, the winter’s cold, my disappointments, tensions, cares. Remind me often that in carrying my cross, I carry yours with you. And though I bear a sliver only of your cross, you carry all of mine, except a sliver in return.’”

There are numerous new versions of the Stations of the Cross that are not just available in prayer books, but are also found online. Praying the Stations is a beautiful devotion to undertake, especially during the season of Lent.

If you have access to a computer, you may wish to visit the numerous websites that feature inspirational texts for the Stations of the Cross. One of them, located at http://www.frpat.com/stations.htm, features drawings by students at a Catholic grammar school in Wisconsin and offers the choice of praying the Stations in either English or Spanish. Another located at http://www.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/s-1.html has a simple and progressive text that links the events in Jesus’ life with our contemporary situations. More conservative Catholics may prefer to use the text provided by the Eternal Word Television Network’s Mother Angelica, which can be found at http://www.ewtn.com/devotionals/stations/stat1.htm or the ones from Catholic Online found at http://www.catholic.org/clife/prayers/station.php.

Those who have a particular appreciation for the work of the late Pope John Paul II may wish to pray the Stations that he first celebrated at the Coliseum in Rome on Good Friday of 1991. They are available online at http://www.usccb.org/nab/stations.htm.

The Pontiff incorporated new themes, thereby breaking away from using all of the following traditional fourteen Stations of the Cross: (1) Jesus is condemned to death; (2) Jesus takes up His cross; (3) Jesus falls the first time; (4) Jesus meets His mother; (5) Jesus is helped by Simon of Cyrene; (6) Veronica wipes the face of Jesus; (7) Jesus falls the second time; (8) Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem; (9) Jesus falls the third time; (10) Jesus is stripped of his garments; (11) Jesus is nailed to the cross; (12) Jesus dies on the cross; (13) Jesus is taken down from the cross; (14) Jesus is buried in the tomb.

As you will note when comparing them, the version of the Stations prayed by Pope John Paul II differs from tradition in seven places. His version consists of the following fourteen Stations: (1) Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane; (2) Jesus betrayed by Judas; (3) Jesus condemned by the Sanhedrin; (4) Jesus denied by Peter; (5) Jesus condemned by the people; (6) Jesus crowned with thorns and clothed in purple; (7) Jesus carries the cross; (8) Jesus assisted by Simon of Cyrene; (9) Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem; (10) Jesus is crucified; (11) Jesus speaks to the thief; (12) Jesus speaks to His mother; (13) Jesus dies on the cross; (14) Jesus is buried.

The Pontiff’s Stations feature readings from Scripture followed by prayer. As an example, here is the selection for the Fourth Station: Jesus is denied by Peter: “Reader: Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. One of the maids came over to him and said, ‘You too were with Jesus the Galilean.’ But he denied it in front of everyone, saying, ‘I do not know what you are talking about!’ As he went out to the gate, another girl saw him and said to those who were there, ‘This man was with Jesus the Nazorean.’ Again he denied it with an oath, ‘I do not know the man!’ A little later the bystanders came over and said to Peter, ‘Surely you too are one of them; even your speech gives you away.’ At that he began to curse and to swear, ‘I do not know the man.’ And immediately a cock crowed. Then Peter remembered the word that Jesus had spoken: ‘Before the cock crows you will deny me three times.’ He went out and began to weep bitterly. (Matthew 26: 69-75) Minister: Lord, grant us the gift of honesty that we may not fear to speak the truth even when difficult.”

Preceding each of the Pontiff’s Stations, the traditional prayer is said, “We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.” Following each of the Stations, the prayer is “Lord Jesus, help us walk in your steps.”

The devotion of the Stations of the Cross has a long and rich history. Tradition maintains that after Jesus’ Ascension into heaven, Our Lady returned to the sites of His Passion and prayed at each of them. This longstanding tradition also maintains that St. John, into whose care Jesus had given His Mother from the cross, brought the Blessed Virgin to Ephesus to live.

No longer having access to the original sites of her Son’s Passion and death, tradition maintains that Our Lady had counted out the precise distance between each of these places in Jerusalem and brought these measurements with her to her new home. She then measured the number of steps between each spot and placed a stone or marked a tree at the correct location with the appropriate Station. Absorbed in prayer, she would then follow each day the Way of the Cross that she had created.

The historically documented origin of the Stations of the Cross can be traced back to the 4th Century in Jerusalem, which was then under Christian control. Pilgrims were encouraged by the Christian emperors to visit the Holy Land. In fact, the Emperor Constan-tine had begun an ambitious urban renewal type project to provide the visitors with all the amenities, including hotel accommodations that they would need. His efforts were continued by his successors. Encouraged by the promise of a plenary indulgence gained by making the journey, pilgrims soon flocked Jeruslaem from all parts of the known world to visit the sites where Jesus had lived.

Fortunately, an actual account of the ancient traditions survives in the letters sent home by Egeria, a woman pilgrim to the Holy Land, who may have been a nun and who hailed from either the Rhone region of what was then Gaul or perhaps from northwestern Spain.

The following is an excerpt from her fascinating account of the Way of the Cross as celebrated by Christians in Jerusalem around the year 380 A.D. “And at the first cockcrow they come down from the Imbomon with hymns, and arrive at the place where the Lord prayed, as it is written in the Gospel: and He was withdrawn [from them] about a stone’s cast, and prayed, and the rest. There is in that place a graceful church. The bishop and all the people enter, a prayer suitable to the place and to the day is said, with one suitable hymn, and the passage from the Gospel is read where He said to His disciples: Watch, that ye enter not into temptation. The whole passage is read through and prayer is made. And then all, even to the smallest child, go down with the Bishop, on foot, with hymns to Gethse-mane. There, on account of the great number of people in the crowd who are wearied owing to the vigils and weak through the daily fasts, and because they have so great a hill to descend, they come very slowly with hymns to Gethsemane. And over two-hundred church candles are made ready to give light to all the people.

On their arrival at Gethsemane, first a suitable prayer is made, then a hymn is said, and then the passage of the Gospel is read where the Lord was taken. And when this passage has been read there is so great a moaning and groaning of all the people, together with weeping, that their lamentation may be heard perhaps as far as the city. From that hour they go with hymns to the city on foot...and thence right on through the midst of the city. All, to a man, both great and small, rich and poor, all are ready there, for on that special day not a soul withdraws from the vigils until morning. Thus the bishop is escorted from Gethsemane to the gate, and thence through the whole of the city to the Cross.”

In the 7th century, the Muslims conquered the Holy Land, making Christian pilgrimages to that region dangerous. To compensate for not being able to go directly to Jerusalem, these early Christians built churches with special features to recreate certain aspects of the holy sites in Jerusalem. As the years progressed, the Stations of the Cross developed more fully. In the 15th century, they were encouraged as “spiritual pilgrimages” for those unable to visit in person the sacred sites of the Holy Land.

The Franciscans, who brought us the nativity scene, also brought us the Stations of the Cross. They were the first to erect the Stations in their churches as a means for the Faithful to reenact the Way of the Cross.

By 1742, the devotion of Stations had become so popular that Pope Benedict XIV strongly encouraged every church to display the Stations. Today virtually every Roman Catholic church does indeed have on its walls the fourteen Stations, with some of the more modern churches adding a fifteenth Station depicting Christ’s Resurrection from the dead.

This Lent, as part of your spiritual journey, consider praying the Stations as you follow in the footsteps of Our Lord. Part of a rich tradition stretching back to the beginnings of Christianity, the Stations of the Cross will undoubtedly help to foster your spiritual growth.