The importance of visually meditating upon the Stations of the Cross
Please don't ignore this grace-filled tradition of Holy Mother Church this Lent
Did you know that a plenary indulgence can be obtained by praying the Stations of the Cross during Lent? Plenary indulgences don’t get the attention they deserve in the post Vatican II Catholic Church and that’s a shame because a plenary indulgence, when properly received, removes all of the temporal punishment due to sins, allowing the faithful to a fresh start, liberated from the remnants of past sinful mistakes. Here are the steps one needs to take to gain the indulgence:
Perform the devotion: Visit a church or an oratory where the Stations of the Cross are displayed, and meditate on the Passion and Death of Christ. You should move from station to station, but if you’re disabled, you can remain in one place.
Go to Confession: You should receive the Sacrament of Confession, ideally within about twenty days before or after performing the devotion (I say do it as soon as possible - Lent passes quickly). Don’t do it though unless you have reflected upon your sins, understand why they are sinful, and are TRULY SORRY for having committed them. Making an invalid confession is a grave, grave sin.
Receive Holy Communion: You’ll have to time this by checking the church’s schedules, but after you are in a state of grace following Confession, receive Holy Communion, ideally on the day of performing the Stations of the Cross.
Prayer for the intentions of the holy father: This one is tough for me because the See of St. Peter is presently vacant and has been since the death of Pope Benedict XVI (no, I don’t expect everyone reading this to agree with me). What I do is pray for the repose of the soul of Pope Benedict and for the papacy to be restored in God’s Mercy. It’s appropriate to say one Pater Noster (Our Father) and one Ave Maria (Hail Mary). Learn how to say them in Latin: the devil hates Latin!
Be detached from sin: This one is even harder than point number four. We should have a complete detachment from ALL SIN, including venial sin. Think about the earthly things that you are attached to and especially those not of necessity like employment. Are these things material, frivolous and/or harmful to your prayer life in any way? Having trouble deciding? Turn to the Blessed Mother for help.
Sacred artwork matters with Stations of the Cross
The Passion of Christ is very much a visual meditation along with audio or silent prayer. For me, it took seeing Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ all those years ago to truly be moved by everything that Our Lord and His Blessed Mother went through for us. It was around that time when I got more and more traditional in my faith.
One thing that really irks me when I have the misfortune to come across it are modernist, abstract Stations of the Cross. Abstract modernism distorts nature and the human body into ugliness and confusion. Just look at the unworthily acclaimed artwork of Pablo Picasso: He was a vile, narcissistic and abusive man - especially to the women in his life. His depictions of people in jagged, confusing and ugly shapes of nothingness are a contradiction to “made in the image of God.” So why should we have ugliness condescendingly disguised as “art” in the Stations of the Cross? We shouldn’t! There’s no way anyone can properly meditate on such garbage and there’s no way it can depict the suffering of Our Lord’s Passion. Unfortunately, in way too many modernist-designed and constructed (and a few tragically renovated) Churches, that’s what exists.
If you’re living in an area where your only access is such a Church with such Stations, I am not going to tell you not to go. God is not a jerk and He understands what you have to work with. What I would like to do for the rest of this post is offer you some examples of very good Stations of the Cross for your personal meditation at home. The text below does not take in the entire reading per Station, nor the antiphons before each, nor the Pater, Ave and Gloria at the end of each. Use your (Traditional Latin Mass) missal or use one of the Station booklets that your church hopefully has on-hand.
May all of you have a blessed Lent.
The First Station: Jesus is condemned to death
Pilate saith: “Behold the Man.” When the chief priests and the servants had seen Him, they cried out saying: “Crucify Him, crucify Him. He calleth Himself the Son of God. He hath become the censurer of our thoughts. He is grievous unto us, even to behold, for His life is not like other men’s, and He abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness…”
The Second Station: Jesus is made to carry His Cross
Then Pilate delivered Him to be crucified. And they took Jesus and led Him forth. And bearing his own cross, He went forth to the place which is called Calvary.
The Third Station: Jesus falls for the first time
He shall lay down His life for sin. He shall see a long-lived seed, and the will of the Lord shall be prosperous in His hand. But the Lord is now pleased to bruise Him in infirmity.
The Fourth Station: Jesus meets His Sorrowful Mother
Behold, thy Son is set for the fall and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign of contradiction. And thine own soul a sword shall pierce, that out of many hearts, thoughts may be revealed.
The Fifth Station: Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus to carry the cross
As they led Him away, they laid hold of one Simon of Cyrene, coming from the country, and they laid the cross on him to carry after Jesus.
The Sixth Station: Veronica wipes the Face of Jesus
There is no beauty in Him, nor comeliness, a worm, not a man, the object of men’s contempt. We have seen Him and there is no sightliness, that we should be desirous of Him. Despised, rejected, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. His visage was inglorious among men and His form among the sons of men. Whereupon we esteemed Him not.
The Seventh Station: Jesus falls for the second time
I am afflicted and greatly humbled, I roared with the groaning of My heart. My heart is troubled. My strength hath left Me, and the light of My eyes itself is not with Me.
The Eighth Station: The women of Jerusalem weep over Jesus
There followed Him a great multitude of people and of women, who bewailed and lamented him. Jesus turning to them, said: “Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not over Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.”
The Ninth Station: Jesus falls for the third time
The Lord hath made a vintage of Me, as He spoke in the day of His fierce anger. From above He hath sent fire into My bones and hath chastised Me. He hath spread a net for My feet. He hath turned Me back. He hath made Me desolate, wasted with sorrow all the day long.
The Tenth Station: Jesus is stripped of His garments
Who is this that cometh from Edom, in crimsoned garments from Bosra, this beautiful one arrayed in majesty, walking in the greatness of his strength? It it I, who announce vindication, I who am mighty to save. Why is then Thine apparel red and Thy garments like theirs that tread in the winepress? I have trodden the winepress alone, and of My people there was no one with Me. The blood spurted on My garments, all My apparel I stained, for My year of redemption was at hand.
The Eleventh Station: Jesus is nailed to the Cross
When they were come to the place which is called Calvary, they crucified Him there, and the robbers, one on the right hand, and the other on the left.
The Twelfth Station: Jesus is raised upon the Cross and dies
It was almost the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. And the veil of the Temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom, and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened… And Jesus cried out with a loud voice: Eloi, Eloi, lamma sabacthani? (O My God, My God, look upon Me. Why hast Thou forsaken Me?)
The Thirteenth Station: Jesus is taken down from the Cross and placed into the arms of His Mother
Let the evening come suddenly upon the whole heavens, and let the astonished sun dispatch the day, while we contemplate the spectacle of the cruel death and the divine tragedy.
The Fourteenth Station: Jesus is laid in the sepulcher
There was in the place where He was crucified a garden: and in the garden a new sepulcher. There, because of the Passover of the Jews, they laid Jesus.
Oh God, Who by the Passion of Thy Christ, our Lord, has undone the bonds of death, the inheritance of man’s first sin, into which His whole race has entered, grant that made like Him, we who of necessity have borne the likeness of earthly nature, may by His sanctifying power put on the likeness of His divine grace. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.
Andrew,
thank you for posting this, very good.
For the "Intentions of the Pope" one can pray "for the "Intentions of the Holy See", as these are always the same. Also, in the 1957 "Raccolta" (collection of indulgenced prayers) that I have, it states that for those who go to Confession every two weeks, they do not have to go to Confession specifically to gain any Plenary Indulgence attached to the prayers they recite.
Thoughtful reflection, practical advice, beautiful artwork. Thank you for writing this.