The Cross as a Journey: The Stations of the Cross for Protestant Worship (Christian Caucus)

CRI/Voice Institute ^ | Dennis Bratcher

[markomalley]

Christian Caucus thread. No obligation to agree, but it is requested that all maintain appropriate Christian decorum and courtesy.

This site is a Wesleyan-based site, FYI.

For the non-Catholic readers: the Stations of the Cross is a devotion that has its origins in pilgrimages made throughout Christian history to the Holy Land. It has developed into a meditation that helps us understand the sacrifice Christ made for our salvation. Many Catholics have found it to be a uniquely powerful devotion, particularly at this time of year when we get ready for Easter. (FYI, it is only known as Easter in the Germanic languages. The remainder of the languages in the world refer to it in some local variant of passover, e.g., pascha, pasquale, etc.)

The web page has a suggested Protestant service for the communal celebration of the stations, developed by a protestant AF chaplain.

[markomalley]

(deep breath)

OK, let's give this "nice" concept a try...

Reference this thread

 

ping to your lists, please

[Kolokotronis]

Catholic/Orthodox caucus ping

[Tax-chick]

Especially when it comes to remembering events in terms of the Faith, the event is not so much about the facts and the data as it is recalling the role of that event in a larger ongoing story, in God's story and in our own story. It is not that the "happenedness" is irrelevant. It is more a matter of how to appropriate the event in terms of its ongoing significance for the continuing community, for us.

This is an excellent point, which the author further elaborates in a very beneficial way.

I've been trying to make this point to my Sunday School class (5th grade) as we've been going through Lent. We have to work at "entering in" to the events of Holy Week, because we're not there when it's happening for the first time; we're not surprised, we already know how it ends. It's especially difficult for the children, since they're in the midst of school testing, sports, and the crush of life.

To make an analogy, if I can cry over Pickett's Charge, or Stonewall Jackson's death, every time I read about it, surely I can participate with some personal involvement in the Passion of Christ!

[lightman]

One of the finest Stations of the Cross that I have experienced is in St. Paul Lutheran Church, Millersburg, Pennsylvania. The former Pastor (who has since swum the Tiber) commissioned a series of Icons to be written for each of the Stations.

After the Iconography was completed the former co-pastor (wife of the aforementioned) composed an incredible series of meditations, many in first-person narrative.

[Quix]

Somewhat busy day. Blessed by your courage and effort. Will try to get back to it this evening or tomorrow.

Thanks.

[siunevada]

In 1991 John Paul II led a Stations of the Cross with a slightly different 'Scripture only' set of stations.

[TexConfederate1861]

“To make an analogy, if I can cry over Pickett’s Charge, or Stonewall Jackson’s death, every time I read about it, surely I can participate with some personal involvement in the Passion of Christ!”

I can understand that. To stand on Seminary Ridge in Gettysburg, and see that long distance that the brave men in gray had to travel under gunfire, shot, and shell will make any man or woman with a heart weep........

[ArrogantBustard]

Are those meditations, by any chance, available in electronic form?

[Tax-chick]

And then we can think about the 50th anniversary of Gettysburg, when the ancient Union soldiers lined up behind the stone wall, while the geriatric Confederate survivors tottered up the field ... and before they’d gone 100 yards, the Union veterans climbed over the wall and met them halfway and hugged them, and they all cried because they were alive and their friends had died.

(’Scuse me while I blow my nose ...)

To get back to the thread topic :-), we can use these examples in our experiences of Holy Week, if we get out the Gospels, or use Stations of the Cross meditations, as the article suggests. Most of us can’t be in the Holy Land, but a little imagination goes a long way.

When we attended the parish at the University of Oklahoma, the parishioners would do the Stations of the Cross on the university campus. Students would take turns carrying the cross, and the whole group would walk probably two miles during the course of the devotion. April can be pretty hot in Oklahoma, and it was tiring, especially if you were pregnant and pushing a stroller.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

One of the things about the stations of the cross is to remember that although there are a bunch of traditional meditations, the devotion recognized as the Stations of the cross is officially described as doing 14 reflections on the passion, and that the commonly accepted list of Stations of the Cross is only the most common arrangement, and it has varied over time.

For someone not catholic or who would like to use the meditation differently John Paul II did one Station of the Cross that could be easily adapted into a scriptural meditation and covers the events of the Passion quite well.

Pope John Paul II celebrated a series of scriptural stations on Good Friday in 1991, and again in 1994, in the Coliseum at Rome:

1. Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane
2. Jesus betrayed by Judas
3. Jesus condemned by the Sanhedrin
4. Jesus denied by Peter
5. Jesus condemned by the people
6. Jesus crowned with thorns and clothed in purple.
7. Jesus carries the cross.
8. Jesus assisted by Simon of Cyrene
9. Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem
10. Jesus is crucified.
11. Jesus speaks to the thief
12. Jesus speaks to his mother
13. Jesus dies on the cross
14. Jesus is buried.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

And a reflection:

It was no clean thing, this —
no easy walk into that dark night,
no staged and calm event
filled with memorable sound bites
and photo op moments,
soldiers in their dress uniforms
and dignitaries in their solemn regalia.

No clean thing, this —
filled instead with the sweat of pain
and the taste of blood,
the dust of the road,
the tears of grief,
the reality of betrayal,
the weight of sin.

No calm thing, this,
filled instead with noise:
the noise of mockery, bitter and undeserved,
punctuated with spittle and blows.
the noise of pain:
the slap of the flagellum against bare skin,
the sound of hammers driving spikes into wood
through human flesh,
cries ripped unbidden from the depths of the gut,
as flesh protested the hot sudden agony
that would not go away.
The noise of expediency: “Crucify him yourselves.”

No easy walk this,
rushed through the crowded streets
beneath a crushing weight,
stripped of everything that matters most to man,
standing naked in the light of day
bruised and bloody and battered,
with nothing left to give
except the acceptance of pain,
except the final acts of love,
surrender
death.

Help me see, O Jesus,
beyond the pretty pictures
and sound bites
and images
to the reality of how God descended to death,
the dirty, miserable realness of it,
of man’s willingness to be inhuman,
and you did this knowing how dark we can be,
and how unloving we can be,
and how we cling to the dark in spite of your light,
and you still chose to go.

[annalex]

They are called to remember because those events are part of who they are, and what they will become.

Which the words of Jesus encapsulate with economical precision: "This is my body. Do this for a commemoration of me". Faith is what we do.

[trisham]

To stand on Seminary Ridge in Gettysburg, and see that long distance that the brave men in gray had to travel under gunfire, shot, and shell will make any man or woman with a heart weep........

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My family visited Gettysburg when I was 13 or 14. It was incredibly moving. Mr. T. and I plan to visit some time in the next few years.

[ELS]

For any readers in the Quebec area near the Basilica of St. Anne de Beaupre, there is a beautiful outdoor stations of the cross on a hill next to the basilica. Here is a photo of one of the stations:

[trisham]

Beyond all the dogmas and the sentimentalism associated with the Cross, finally it is about faithfulness, servanthood, the commitment of One to another that will not abandon that commitment even when rejected. In a real sense, the cross is about the power of love, the commitment of God to humanity, the faithfulness and grace of God that knows no limits and will yield to no boundary, that will risk even death itself for the sake of new life.

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Speaking of things that are incredibly moving..

[Tax-chick]

Yes.

I’m rereading the biography of St. Maximilian Kolbe this week. Makes me feel like a total schlub.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

I’ve been reading about St. Dominic and came away feeling the same...

[Tax-chick]

I think we have a biography of St. Dominic on the shelf; maybe I’ll try that next ;-).

[trisham]

I asked the Mother of God what was to become of me. Then she came to me holding two crowns, one white, the other red. She asked if I was willing to accept either of these crowns. The white one meant that I should persevere in purity, and the red that I should become a martyr. I said that I would accept them both. -Saint Maximilian

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Wow.