The Way of the Cross
also known as Stations of the Cross

From ancient times, followers of Jesus told the story of his passion, death and resurrection. Pilgrims to Jerusalem were anxious to see the sites where Jesus was, and these sites became important places of personal connection with Jesus. 

 

In the medieval period, when pilgrimage to Jerusalem was popular, people there began to walk the traditional path Jesus took from his arrest to his passion and death-- we even have first hand accounts of pilgrims from this time. Because not everyone could travel to Jerusalem, the church began to offer local pilgrimage services called the Way of the Cross that marked the places along the route in Jerusalem.

The service is also known as the Stations of the Cross. The word station comes from the Latin word that means to stand. We are walking from Christ’s trial to His crucifixion at Calvary and we stop and stand at certain sites (stations) that commemorate various events that took place along the way. As you come to each station, you stop, pray, read the scriptures, pray the prayers, and contemplate the situation before moving on. As you walk from one station to the next, your walking becomes a devotional act, because you are walking with Jesus as He walks to Calvary.

Moving from station to station, following the events in the words of scripture and letting the prayers draw us into the narrative, we are given the opportunity to understand something of Christ’s passion and our involvement in it. The movement and the events are the heart of the Way (or Stations) of the Cross, and many different prayers and readings have been developed for this devotion. It can be said as a private form of prayer or, particularly on Fridays in Lent, as a public liturgy.

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There are fourteen stations in the service, with eight stations marking events recorded in the Gospels (numbers 1, 2, 5, 8, 10, 11, 12, and 14) and six stations commemorating events known only in tradition or legend (numbers 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, and 13).