Table of Contents

• Contemplative Stations of the Cross
• Scriptural Stations of the Cross
• Reviews, Contemplative Stations
• Audio Stations of The Cross, New & Improved Version

CONTEMPLATIVE STATIONS OF THE CROSS OVERVIEW OF THE THEOLOGY, HISTORY AND SPIRITUALITY OF ONE OF CHRISTIANITY’S GREAT DEVOTIONS^[1]

 by Rev. William E. Zimmer

Theology of the Stations of the Cross: The Paschal Mystery

The Paschal Mystery – the Passion and Glorification of Jesus Christ – is, at its deepest level, the most profound revelation of the love of God and the reality of eternal life.  It is the climax and greatest of God’s mighty and wonderful works. It makes the indescribable, unimaginable joy of eternity in the presence of God possible for all humanity.  Therefore Christ’s suffering, death, resurrection and ascension is  not just the center and high point of human history.  It is the purpose and end to which all of history is directed.  It brought to completion the great mystery and gift of the Incarnation – God becoming a human being like us in all things but sin – the central and defining mystery of Christianity.  Ultimately the Paschal Mystery was the deepest purpose of the Incarnation for it was the fullest revelation of God’s unfathomable love and mercy.

Pope Saint John Paul II summarizes this well in his apostolic letter “The Rosary of the Virgin Mary” promulgated in October 2002: “The gospels give great prominence to the sorrowful mysteries of Christ.  From the beginning, Christian piety, especially in the Lenten devotion of the Way of the Cross, has focused on individual moments of the passion, realizing that here is found the culmination of the revelation of God’s love and the source of our salvation.”

History of the Stations of the Cross

Christ’s glorification was the defining revelation for his disciples.  The empty tomb, appearances of the Risen Jesus and the dramatic conclusion of His Incarnation – His Ascension into glory – radically changed every aspect of their lives forever.  A fuller understanding of Jesus of Nazareth – His identity and purpose – had been given them.   They now had a greater realization of His divinity and the purpose of His life, teachings and especially His death.  It was now clear and beyond any doubt that God had fulfilled the prophecies of old, but in an unexpected and wondrous way.  They received the amazing enlightenment that the Divine had been present to them in all its fullness. 

They considered how to respond to this startling revelation.  It was apparent that since Jesus of Nazareth was God’s very self among them everything about Him was of utmost importance – specifying theologically who He was – His divine preexistence, His human origin, life on earth, teachings, suffering, death and departure from this world to return to the heavenly realms.  It soon occurred to them that these aspects of the mysterious Christ event should be remembered and proclaimed.  Guided and empowered by the Holy Spirit they began to share this realization openly with great effect.

The God-Man’s suffering and death was one of the most recent events of His time among them and in the profound words of John Paul II it was the “culmination of the revelation of God’s love and the source of our salvation”.  This led them to proclaim verbally and later in writing the particulars of His passion.  The four gospels thus recorded for all time the passion of the Lamb of God.  These terrible sufferings are recounted at a level of historical detail unusual for the gospels.

Like many aspects of our faith that go back to ancient times, the exact origin of the devotion called the Stations of the Cross is steeped in mystery.  It cannot be specified with certainty according to modern standards of historical evidence. 

The Way of the Cross^[2], when prayed while walking from station to station, can be thought of as a miniature pilgrimage to the holy places at Jerusalem. Therefore the origin of the devotion may be traced to the Holy Land.  The Via Dolorosa at Jerusalem was reverently marked out from the earliest times and has been the goal of pious pilgrims ever since the days of Constantine. Tradition asserts that the Blessed Virgin visited the scenes of Christ’s Passion daily.  The great Catholic scripture scholar St. Jerome, who lived in Bethlehem from 386 until his death in 420, spoke of the crowds of pilgrims from all the countries of the world who used to visit the holy places of Jerusalem during his time there.  There is, however, no direct evidence as to the existence of any set form of the stations of the cross at that early date.  It is virtually certain that nothing that we have prior to about the fifteenth century can strictly be called a Way of the Cross in the modern sense. 

Stations with indulgences must be considered to be the true origin of the devotion as now practiced.  It cannot be said with any certainty when such indulgences began to be granted but most probably they may be due to the Franciscans to whom in 1342 the guardianship of the holy places was entrusted.  The earliest use of the word “stations”, as applied to the accustomed stopping-places in the Via Sacra at Jerusalem, occurs in the narrative of an English pilgrim, William Wey, who visited the Holy Land in 1458 and 1462.

By the early sixteenth century traversing the route of Jesus’ sorrowful journey by beginning at Pilate’s house and ending at Mount Calvary became a special exercise of devotion complete in itself.  During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries several reproductions of the holy places in Jerusalem were set up in different parts of Europe.  In several of these early examples an attempt was made, not merely to duplicate the most hallowed spots of the original Via Dolorosa at Jerusalem, but also to reproduce the exact intervals between them, measured in paces, so that devout people might cover precisely the same distances as they would have done had they made the pilgrimage to the Holy Land itself.

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.  It may therefore be conjectured, with extreme probability, that our present series of stations, together with the accustomed series of prayers for them, comes to us, not from Jerusalem, but from some of the imitation Ways of the Cross in different parts of Europe. Accordingly we owe the propagation of the devotion, as well as the number and selection of our stations, much more to the pious ingenuity of certain sixteenth-century devotional writers than to the actual practice of pilgrims to the holy places in Jerusalem.

Spirituality of the Stations of the Cross

The devotional prayer of the Way of the Cross consists of offering, at each station, prayers and a devout meditation that focuses on a particular incident of Christ’s passion.  A common practice, especially when the stations are prayed in public, is to sing a stanza of the “Stabat Mater” while passing from one station to the next.  During the various ages of church history the number of stations varied considerably in different places.  Now fourteen are prescribed by authority. The Contemplative Stations of the Cross that we will pray in a few moments – as well as most contemporary versions – include these 14 and a 15th station – the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Thus they encompass the Paschal Mystery of Christ in its fullness.  This is essential because as St. John Paul II says, Christ’s passion was both revelatory “ … the culmination of the revelation of God’s love …” and salvific “ … the source of our salvation.” Therefore the passion is directed to the resurrection and without it doesn’t make much sense.

There is an abundance of spiritual fruits that are showered upon those praying the Stations of the Cross:

• Fulfillment of our baptismal commitment to imitate Christ in our life. Jesus Himself said, as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, “ … whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.” (Mt 10:38)  Praying the stations is a way to follow the Lord in His passion by literally following Him in His actual footsteps during His passion in Jerusalem.  This has been done by countless pilgrims down through ages both at the Sacred Sites themselves in Jerusalem or symbolically by walking and praying the stations in other parts of the world.  Accompanying Jesus in His passion in this way gives us the grace to bear our own particular crosses in life and offer them to the Father for the salvation of souls, following the Lord’s example.  This is how the Christian finds profound meaning and value in their crosses in life – their sufferings, sacrifices, problems, difficulties, obstacles etc.
• Praying the stations deepens one’s personal relationship with and love for the Lord as a fruit of a deeper realization of God’s unfathomable love for us. It moves us to desire to share His cross as a sign and expression of our love for Him and even to seek ways to suffer with and for Him.
• Praying the stations is a way to praise and thank the Lord for this great act of God’s love and maintain the memory of it throughout all ages of human history.
• Praying the stations is an act pleasing to God. This is indicated by the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in maintaining and developing this devotion throughout over two millennia of Church history.  There are now many versions of the Stations of the Cross including The Way of The Cross for Young Christians^[3], scriptural stations of the cross, The Way of the Cross for Children^[4], Praying For Our Priests … And the Stations of the Cross^[5] and Contemplative Stations of the Cross.^[6]
• A sincere, heartfelt praying of the stations with children and young people is a powerful way to hand on the Catholic-Christian faith to the next generation and through them to future generations.
• Praying the stations deepens our love for and solidarity with Mary, the mother of the Divine Son, and the apostles and disciples who were eye witnesses to this central act of human history.
• Praying the stations is an act of unity with those many others throughout the world who pray this great devotion and all Christians who believe in Jesus Christ’s passion as the final and definitive act of the Divine Mercy.
• Pilgrimage is a principal spiritual practice of the world’s major religions, particularly Christianity, Islam and Judaism. By praying the stations the faithful make a pilgrimage in spirit to the chief scenes of Christ’s sufferings, death and resurrection in Jerusalem.
• Those who pray the stations of the cross obtain a plenary indulgence^[7]. It may be safely asserted that there is no devotion more richly endowed with indulgences than the Way of the Cross.
• The contemplative praying of the stations of the cross immerses one more deeply into the central mystery of God concerning salvation – the Paschal Mystery of the Divine Son. This unites the one so praying more profoundly and intimately with God and moves them to desire to share that passion and glorification.  In this they achieve the deepest desire of the human heart and the very purpose of human existence.

We  invite you to join us in praying the contemplative stations of the cross.  The particular reflections for each station here are but one of many that are possible.  You are encouraged to be open to and pray over the reflections that come to you at each station.