“Making the Way of the Cross, we, the followers of Jesus, must declare once more our discipleship: weeping like Peter for sins committed; opening our hearts to faith in Jesus the suffering Messiah, like the Good Thief; remaining there at the foot of the Cross of Christ like the Mother and the Disciple, and there with them receiving the Word which redeems, the Blood which purifies, the Spirit which gives life.”
Bishop Piero Marini, sometime Master of the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff
Stations of the Cross (Via Crucis) is a traditional Catholic devotion in which we accompany Our Lord in the journey of his Passion, meditating upon this mystery in which Jesus manifested his obedience “even unto death, death on a cross” (Phil. 2:8). We are privileged to have a beautiful set of Stations in our church which invite us afresh each year to accompany Our Lord in this holy journey by which he redeemed humanity. The meditation at Stations is usually accompanied by the traditional singing of the chant Stabat Mater, believed to be composed by the Italian poet Jacopone da Todi, an author beloved by St Philip Neri. For our Musical Oratory later in Lent (Friday 27th March at 5.30pm), which takes the form of Stations of the Cross, music is chosen from the full breadth of our Catholic tradition. On a weekly basis in Lent the devotion takes place each Friday at 5pm and then a number of times in Holy Week itself.
This year, if you may not have participated in this devotion recently, why not come on one or more occasions and find the meaning and depth that has made this one of the most popular forms of Catholic piety for many centuries?
A plenary indulgence is offered to those who pray the Stations, either with others as we do in St Bernadette’s on Fridays in Lent and at our Musical Oratory, or for those who make this devotion individually, making use of the Stations erected in a Church. The indulgence is dependent on the usual conditions: holy communion, confession and prayer for the intentions of the Pope (this last is done publicly at the end of our Friday Stations).
Click here for an historical and devotional reflection on the Stations of the Cross on the Vatican website.
Among the most loved forms of the Stations is that of St Alphonsus Liguori