Worthy Grand Knight and Brother Knights

The Stations of the Cross or the Way of the Cross, also known as the Way of Sorrows, the Via Crucis or the Via Dolorosa, are any series of fourteen images depicting Jesus Christ on the day of his crucifixion and accompanying prayers, These stations are derived from the imitations of the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem which is a traditional processional route symbolizing the path Jesus walked from the Lions' Gate to Mount Calvary. The objective of the stations is to help us make a spiritual pilgrimage through contemplation of the Passion of Christ. It has become one of the most popular Lenten devotions and these stations can be found in Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican and Methodist churches.

Commonly, a series of 14 images will be arranged in numbered order along a path, along which worshippers—individually or in a procession—move in order, stopping at each station to say prayers and engage in reflections associated with that station. These devotions reflect a spirit of reparation for the sufferings and insults that Jesus endured during his passion. As a physical devotion involving standing, kneeling and genuflections, the Stations of the Cross are tied with the Christian themes of repentance and mortification of the flesh.

History

Following the siege of 1187, Jerusalem fell to the forces of Saladin, the first sultan of Egypt and Syria. Forty years later, members of the Franciscan religious order were allowed back into the Holy Land. Their founder, Francis of Assisi, held the Passion of Christ in special veneration and is said to have been the first person to receive the stigmata, the five wounds of Christ. In 1217, Francis also founded the Custody of the Holy Land to guard and promote the devotion to Christian holy places. The Franciscans' efforts were recognized when Pope Clement VI officially proclaimed them the custodians of holy places in 1342. Although several travelers who visited the Holy Land during the 12–14th centuries mention a "Via Sacra", that is a settled route that pilgrims followed, there is nothing in their accounts to identify this with the Way of the Cross, as we understand it today. The earliest use of the word "stations", as applied to the accustomed halting-places along the Via Delarosa at Jerusalem, occurs in the narrative of an English pilgrim, William Wey, who visited the Holy Land in the mid-15th century and described pilgrims following the footsteps of Christ to Golgotha. In 1521, a book called Geystlich Strass (German: "spiritual road") was printed with illustrations of the stations in the Holy Land.

During the 15th and 16th centuries, the Franciscans began to build a series of outdoor shrines in Europe to duplicate their counterparts in the Holy Land. The number of stations at these shrines varied between seven and thirty; seven was common. These were usually placed, often in small buildings, along the approach to a church, as in a set of 1490 by Adam Kraft, leading to the Johanniskirche in Nuremberg, the oldest Lutheran church in Germany. A number of rural examples were established as attractions in their own right, usually on attractive wooded hills. These include the Sacro Monte di Domodossola (1657) and Sacro Monte di Belmonte (1712), and form part of the Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy World Heritage Site. The sculptures at these sites are very elaborate and often nearly life-size. Remnants of these sites are often referred to as calvary hills.

In 1686, in answer to their petition, Pope Innocent XI granted to the Franciscans the right to erect stations within their churches. In 1731, Pope Clement XII extended to all churches the right to have the stations, provided that a Franciscan father erected them, with the consent of the local bishop. At the same time the number of stations was fixed at fourteen. In 1857, the bishops of England were allowed to erect the stations by themselves, without the intervention of a Franciscan priest, and in 1862 this right was extended to bishops throughout the church.

Stations

The early set of seven scenes was usually numbers 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 11 and 14 from the list below. From the late 16th century to the present, the standard complement has consisted of 14 pictures or sculptures depicting the following scenes:

1. Jesus is condemned to death
2. Jesus takes up his Cross
3. Jesus falls the first time
4. Jesus meets his Mother
5. Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the Cross
6. Veronica wipes the face of Jesus
7. Jesus falls for the second time
8. Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem
9. Jesus falls for the third time
10. Jesus is stripped of his garments (sometimes called the "Division of Robes")
11. Jesus is nailed to the Cross
12. Jesus dies on the Cross
13. Jesus is taken down from the Cross
14. Jesus is laid in the tomb

Although not traditionally part of the Stations, the Resurrection of Jesus is sometimes included as an unofficial fifteenth station. One very different version, called the Via Lucis, the “Way of Light", comprising the Fourteen Stations of Light or Stations of the Resurrection, starts with Jesus rising from the dead and ends with Pentecost.

The New Way of the Cross (Philippines)

Another set of stations is used by the Catholic Church in the Philippines. Filipinos use this set during Visita Iglesia, a tradition of visiting seven churches to meditate on the Passion of Christ, which is usually undertaken during Holy Week:

1. The Last Supper
2. The Agony in Gethsemane
3. Jesus Before the Sanhedrin
4. Jesus is scourged and crowned with thorns
5. Jesus Receives His Cross
6. Jesus Falls under the weight of the Cross
7. Simon of Cyrene Helps Jesus carry the Cross
8. Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem
9. Jesus is nailed to the Cross
10. The Repentant Thief
11. Mary and John at the Foot of the Cross
12. Jesus dies on the Cross
13. Jesus is laid in His Tomb
14. Jesus rises from the Dead

Modern Usage

In the Roman Catholic Church, the Stations of the Cross may be conducted personally by the faithful, making their way from one station to another and saying the prayers, or by having an officiating celebrant move from cross to cross while the faithful make the responses. The stations themselves must consist of, at the very least, fourteen wooden crosses as pictures alone do not suffice, and they must be blessed by someone with the authority to erect stations.

Pope John Paul II led an annual public prayer of the Stations of the Cross at the Roman Colosseum on Good Friday. Originally, the pope himself carried the cross from station to station, but in his last years when age and infirmity limited his strength, John Paul presided over the celebration from a stage on the Palatine Hill, while others carried the cross. Palatine Hill, which relative to the seven hills of Rome is the centermost, is one of the most ancient parts of the city; it has been called "the first nucleus of the Roman Empire". 

The celebration of the Stations of the Cross is especially common on the Fridays of Lent, especially Good Friday. Community celebrations are usually accompanied by various songs and prayers. Particularly common as musical accompaniment is the Stabat Mater of which a few verses are sung between each station. The Stabat Mater is a 13th-century Christian hymn to the Virgin Mary that portrays her suffering as a mother during the crucifixion of her son Jesus Christ. There are 20 verses to the Stabat Mater. The first four are:

I remember singing this in grade school. St. Andrew School in Rochester, New York had one lay teacher. All remaining teachers were nuns, two grades on 1st through 8th grade. The nuns made sure we knew every verse.