A 15th Station?

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Hi there-I have a quick question brought on from RCIA tonight…(no, I didn’t ask for clarification there b/c quite frankly I knew I wouldn’t get it.) As our closing prayer we were praying the stations of the cross and at the end, the woman leading the prayer said, “and the 15th station is the resurrection.” She went on to add that Vatican II added another station to the cross, being the resurrection, but we still say there are only 14. Now I was dumbfounded b/c I’ve never heard that before, (a google search didn’t turn up much) so I ask, did Vatican II really add another station?!? Is it prayed regularly during Lent?

Thanks!

Andrea
 
It wasn’t a Vatican II thing but it does show up in some listings. I have some posters of the stations that I use for my CCE kids and they include the 15th station. I just leave that one out. 😃 I have never heard the 15th station included in any public praying of the stations.
 
At my home parish and my transplanted parish in Lincoln we pray the 15th station. It is found in the little pamphlets based on the St. Alphonsus Ligouri stations and was actually written before the end of Vatican II and uses Scripture quotations from the Confraternity-Douay version of the Bible.

I see nothing wrong with adding it. While we commemorate His Passion, we cannot forget His Resurection.
 
Actually, I have seen 16 in use (0 through 15, using the tabernacle for both).

In any case, we live in a dynamic world. God did not come down from heaven and say “You will have 14 Stations of the Cross, and this it what they’ll be.” The devotion was a human invention, and as with all human inventions it evolves and changes over time. We are just in that process.

From the old Catholic Encyclopedia:
With regard to the number of Stations it is not at all easy to determine how this came to be fixed at fourteen, for it seems to have varied considerably at different times and places. And, naturally, with varying numbers the incidents of the Passion commemorated also varied greatly. Wey’s account, written in the middle of the fifteenth century, gives fourteen, but only five of these correspond with ours, and of the others, seven are only remotely connected with our Via Crucis…

…When Romanet Boffin visited Jerusalem in 1515 for the purpose of obtaining correct details for his set of Stations at Romans, two friars there told him that there ought to be thirty-one in all, but in the manuals of devotion subsequently issued for the use of those visiting these Stations they are given variously as nineteen, twenty-five, and thirty-seven, so it seems that even in the same place the number was not determined very definitely. A book entitled “Jerusalem sicut Christi tempore floruit”, written by one Adrichomius and published in 1584, gives twelve Stations which correspond exactly with the first twelve of ours…
 
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AWall:
Hi there-I have a quick question brought on from RCIA tonight…(no, I didn’t ask for clarification there b/c quite frankly I knew I wouldn’t get it.) As our closing prayer we were praying the stations of the cross and at the end, the woman leading the prayer said, “and the 15th station is the resurrection.” She went on to add that Vatican II added another station to the cross, being the resurrection, but we still say there are only 14. Now I was dumbfounded b/c I’ve never heard that before, (a google search didn’t turn up much) so I ask, did Vatican II really add another station?!? Is it prayed regularly during Lent?

Thanks!

Andrea
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No, the Catholic devotion in it’s official form has 14. That does not mean that there are not other personal forms with 15 or 20.
 
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ComradeAndrei:
At my home parish and my transplanted parish in Lincoln we pray the 15th station. It is found in the little pamphlets based on the St. Alphonsus Ligouri stations and was actually written before the end of Vatican II and uses Scripture quotations from the Confraternity-Douay version of the Bible.

I see nothing wrong with adding it. While we commemorate His Passion, we cannot forget His Resurection.
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The Stations by St. Alphonsus Liguori contain 14 stations. The stations are supposed to leave us with the emptyness felt by the Apostles at the closed tomb. Not knowing what was to happen, not yet understanding it all. Just because you don’t like the ending of the book you can’t just add another chapter. The story does continue, but it’s in another volume.
 
Pope John Paul II in his Lenten meditations for Good Friday a few years ago suggested some alternatives to the traditional stations. He used some of the events actually recorded in the bible in place of those deriving from tradition, like Veronica. Two condemnations one by the Sanhedrin and one by Pilate are mentioned, for example. just read this someplace, I thought it was here but it might have been EWTN or Catholic Exchange.
 
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Digitonomy:
Where can I find this in print? Is it in the CCC?
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TAN carried it in a little booklet in it’s original form from the 1940’s printing. They were 2 or 3 bucks.
 
Br. Rich SFO:
TAN carried it in a little booklet in it’s original form from the 1940’s printing. They were 2 or 3 bucks.
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I guess I’m wondering what makes it the “official form”? I always thought it was a private devotional, like the rosary. The 14 may be in widespread use, I’ve certainly never heard of a different number until now, but unless TAN was publishing a document from the magesterium or some other quasi-official body, it’s just the form chosen by the particular religious organization that wrote the TAN book, not truly “official.”
 
Yah, we did the 15th one at my church too. I’ve never seen it before. I thought the whole idea during the stations was that we are called to remember his passion and suffering for us, and that we are supposed to be left without the completeness of the ressurection until Easter Sunday.
 
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Digitonomy:
I guess I’m wondering what makes it the “official form”? I always thought it was a private devotional, like the rosary. The 14 may be in widespread use, I’ve certainly never heard of a different number until now, but unless TAN was publishing a document from the magesterium or some other quasi-official body, it’s just the form chosen by the particular religious organization that wrote the TAN book, not truly “official.”
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There is a book of official prayers, litinies and devotions for public use.
 
In 2002 the Vatican published the “Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy” which is at vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccdds/documents/rc_con_ccdds_doc_20020513_vers-direttorio_en.html

It calls the “Stations of the Cross” the “Via Crucis” and discusses them in n. 131 - 137.

It includes in n. 134: “the traditional form of the Via Crucis, with its fourteen stations is to be retained as the typical form of this pious exercise;”

But also: “the Via Crucis is a pious devotion connected with the Passion of Christ; it should conclude, however, in such fashioin as to leave the faithful with a sense of expectation of the resurrection in faith and hope; following the example of the Via Crucis in Jerusalem which ends with a station at the Anastasis, the celebration could end with a commemoration of the Lord’s resurrection.”

So it seems to me you could have it, but should not call it “the 15th station”.
 
Br. Rich SFO:
The Stations by St. Alphonsus Liguori contain 14 stations. The stations are supposed to leave us with the emptyness felt by the Apostles at the closed tomb. Not knowing what was to happen, not yet understanding it all. Just because you don’t like the ending of the book you can’t just add another chapter. The story does continue, but it’s in another volume.
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Beautifully said, Brother Rich.
 
Hi! Thank you all so much for the information! I am currently reading the document on the Vatican website. (Thank you for that reference!)

Andrea
 
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