Please Explain Stations of the Cross?

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lucien123

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I’ve never done the stations of the cross, and neither did anyone in my family.
  1. Can someone please explain how its done?
  2. Do I have to walk around the church to do it or do I just imagine everything in my mind?
Please advise,
Thanks
Lucien
 
The Stationsof the cross can be done either way. You mediate on Our Lord’s Passion. There are 14 Stations. Any Church has them.
 
The Stations of the Cross are the 14 pictures (or sculptures) usually hung along the walls of the church.

There is no set way to pray ‘the Stations of the Cross’ - they are there as a narrative device to help you contemplate the Passion of Christ’s crucifixion. There are many different texts you can use to help you in that contemplation.

One of the most well known is the St Alphonsus Liguori text: columbia.edu/cu/augustine/arch/liguori.html

You can use it either on your own in a meditative way without personally standing in front of each ‘station’, or you can do it, either singly or in a group, by processing from one ‘station’ to the next.

I find Stations of the Cross to be most moving and especially valuable during the season of Lent.
 
My favorite stations of the Cross are at St. Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal. They are set in a lovely garden on the side of Mount Royal. Beautiful spot to pray and meditate. I’d read the Office of readings there at 6:30 am, just as it opened, when I worked nearby and would go to 7 am Mass.
 
Having been to the Holy Land on pilgrimage, it is sometimes nice to revisit those places by taking a virtual tour on the internet. Someone has put together a nice virtual pilgrimage to the Stations of the Cross in Jerusalem.
jerusalemviacrucis.org/
 
lucien123 said:
I’ve never done the stations of the cross, and neither did anyone in my family.
  1. Can someone please explain how its done?
  2. Do I have to walk around the church to do it or do I just imagine everything in my mind?
Please advise,
Thanks
Lucien
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Yes, you must walk if you are able. It is part of the devotion.

Fourteen paces will do. One pace per station meditated upon.

Call it a walk with Jesus and Mary if you must.
 
No, I don’t think you are right to say we have to walk. When we have stations in our parish church during Lent. only the priest and cross-bearer, if any, move. The congregation just shifts their position to face the correct picture. I have also been in churches where all the 14 are on the same wall, even above each other in rows so no walking can be done.

Incidentally, the traditional 14 Stations are not the only way to practise this devotion. There are other versions, the most modern of which being a Scripture Way of the Cross, composed by either Pope John Paul or the present Pope, emphasising the incidents we know about from the Gospels ,rather than tradition.
 
I think the critical part of the devotion is nothing to do with the ‘mechanics’ of moving from one part of the church to another. It’s the mental stopping and considering each stage in the Passion.

We take so little time to consider the last hours of Jesus that really looking and understanding each step that He took brings us closer into his Passion. I’ve lead Stations at my parish on a few occasions, as well as privately, and I have to say that the experience becomes more profound with each iteration. When I get to the 12th Station, I find it almost impossible to say the words without my heart breaking.

I would recommend to anyone seeking to understand the devotion better that they take an opportunity to lead it. Actually having to announce the expositionary words means that you’re taking a conscious effort to understand them. There’s no skipping words or ‘speed reading’. You can’t do that when you’re speaking. Each time I’ve done it I’ve found that I’ve needed to meditate on it first and then the experience lives within me for quite some time afterwards. As a means of becoming more attuned to this central act in the story of our faith, it’s invaluable.
 
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