Pastor's Corner, April 6, 2014

Dear Parishioners and Friends,  

One of the most beautiful and poignant devotions celebrated during Lent are the Stations of the Cross. This devotion is an example of what Pope Francis talks about in "The Joy of the Gospel" when he writes that “Popular piety enables us to see how the faith, once received, becomes embodied in a culture and is constantly passed on” (123).

Tradition says that the Blessed Mother often visited the scenes of her Son's passion. After the legal recognition of Christianity in the 4th Century, the pathway was marked and St. Jerome reports that Christians from around the Roman Empire came to visit the holy places and follow the path Jesus took to Calvary.

In 1462 an English pilgrim described how his fellow pilgrims went from Pilate's house to Calvary, praying various "stations" which commemorated events and encounters of Our Lord on the way to His death.

When Muslim Turks invaded and controlled access to the Holy Land, suppressing any veneration in public of the stations in the city of Jerusalem, the devotion was carried to European churches, especially with the efforts of the Franciscans. Stations of the Cross were erected inside the church and prayers helped people to meditate on Our Lord's passion and death. 

In Christ,

Msgr. Baker