For me in the stations of the cross when Jesus meets His mother. Just watching her baby go up to execution, as a parent there’s nothing worse and that’s the sword that pierces Mary’s heart. I can’t even imagine that nor do I ever want to. Charles Johnston

Charles Johnston is a father and husband in Phoenix, Arizona. His conversion journey has taken years, as he felt God pulling him toward His Church but he resisted until he couldn’t take it anymore. He gave in and fell in love with His Church.  He blogs for ‘Now that I’m catholic.wordpress.com’

In this episode, Charles tells us about The Stations of the Cross.
He explains:
-What they are?
-Why do them and the significance of meditating on the Lord’s Passion?
-How to pray them?
-What are indulgences and why the stations of the cross are so powerful?

The Stations of the Cross

Alternatively, they’re also called the Via Dolorosa. The stations of the cross are now a major Lenten meditation. Every Friday, churches all across the world conduct them to meditate on the Passion of Jesus.

We’ve all watched the movie the Passion of Christ. As painful as it is to watch, Charles makes a good point when he says the current view we have of crucifixion is very sanitized. The actual crucifixion was horrific.

Charles also shares his own experience from traveling to the Holy Land all about the actual walk up Calvary, the grade and the difficulty in making the journey. However, his advice about the stations of the cross is to live it, be there with Jesus and be a companion to Him as He makes His journey. It can all come alive for you if you truly meditate on it. Don’t just do them because the priest asks you to go around the church. No, be a witness and if nothing else put yourself in Mary’s shoes.

Stations of the Cross this Lent

I’m not a big fan of the Stations. I’ve always done just one during Lent and then forgotten about them the rest of the year. I remember the Lent after my own dad passed away I wasn’t keen on Lent. My dad was big on Lent! I remember making the stations of the Cross. Redemptorist priests conducted them at our parish. When they focused on Mary watching a battered Jesus and holding her innocent son, I wept bitterly.

Through the rest of the stations of the cross, they made us focus on many of our own life’s situations in Jesus’s journey. How we fall in life, how we are condemned or we condemn other people, how we strip people of their respect and how we also lose loved ones and so forth. Now, I see the stations differently. It showed me how to focus on where I’m in that journey of sainthood and yet, always failing.

Stations Enumerated

1 – Jesus is condemned to death

2 – Jesus carries his cross

3 – Jesus falls for the first time

4 – Jesus meets his afflicted mother

5 – Simon helps Jesus carry his cross

6 – Veronica wipes the face of Jesus

7 – Jesus falls the second time

8 – Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem

9 – Jesus falls a third time

10 – Jesus is stripped of his clothes

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

Tell me how you do the stations of the cross and what it means to you. I’d love to hear from you. Here’s one version of the Stations of the Cross with meditation.

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