One of the popular devotions that is prayed during Lent is the “Stations of the Cross.” In our Family of Parishes, the stations are prayed on Wednesdays and Fridays in the churches during Lent:
Wednesdays: St. Bernadette’s at 11:30am after Mass and St. Mary’s at 6:00 pm and Fridays: St. John’s at 8:30am after Mass, St. Bernadette’s and Nativity at 7:00pm, Saints Peter & Paul at 7:15pm after the Soup & Speaker Series.
We have several different versions which we pray, depending on the preference of the leader for a particular evening. One of the booklets that we use at Nativity is entitled “The Way of the Cross as composed by St. Alphonsus Liguori,” published by Barton Cotton (Baltimore, Maryland). In the forward to this edition, the following is stated: During the Turkish occupation of the Holy Land in the late
Middle Ages, when pilgrims were prevented from visiting its sacred sites, the custom arose of making replicas of those holy places, where the faithful might come to pray. One of the most popular of these
devotions was the “Stations of the Way of the Cross,” which were imitations of the “stations,” or stopping places of prayer on the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem. By the late sixteenth century the fourteen stations, as we know them today were erected in almost all Catholic churches.
Among the best known prayers for the Way of the Cross are those first published in Italian by St. Alphonsus Liguori in 1761, which are presented here in a new, revised translation. In his brief
introduction to this devotion, St. Alphonsus wrote: “The pious exercise of the Way of the Cross represents the sorrowful journey that Jesus Christ made with the cross on His shoulders, to die on Calvary for the
love of us. We should, therefore, practice this devotion with the greatest possible fervor, placing ourselves in spirit beside our Savior as He walked this sorrowful way, uniting our tears with His, and offering to Him both our compassion and our gratitude.”
Hopefully, these brief words about the “Stations of the Cross” will inspire us to fervent prayer this Lent as we reflect upon the sufferings of Christ on His journey to the cross. May we unite our sufferings with those of the Crucified Christ to help bring us salvation.
St. Alphonsus Liguori, pray for us!
Fr. Jim