Stations of the Cross

Today, I'm posting a special episode on The Stations of the Cross. 

What follows is a Stations of the Cross text I wrote in 2004, reflecting on the images Mel Gibson provided in his movie The Passion of The Christ. Each mediation also includes a quote from one of my favorite spiritual writers.

In the show notes, you'll find links to learn more about the Stations of the Cross,  sources for the quotes used in the meditations, and a link to learn more about the album Via Crucis by Dick Le Mair. Many thanks to Le Mair for granting me the rights to include his music in this episode.

How Did the Stations of the Cross Begin? - Fr. William Saunders

“For God So Loved”: C.S. Lewis’s Four Loves and the Doctrine of Christ’s Atonement - Adam J. Johnson

The Four Loves - C.S. Lewis

Text of the meditations inspired by The Passion of the Christ by Mel Gibson

Quotation sources:

I - Into Your Hands, Father - Fr. Wilfrid Stinissen

II, IX, XII - Via Crucis - Saint Josemaría Escrivá

III - De Interpellatione David - Saint Ambrose of Milan

IV - Salt of the Earth - Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

V, VIII - Transformation in Christ - Dietrich von Hildebrand

VI - De pauperum - Saint Gregory of Nazianzen

VII - The Jeweler's Shop - Karol Wojtyla

X - Interior Freedom - Fr. Jacques Philippe

XI - The Gospel of Life (Evangelium Vitae) - Saint Pope John Paul II

XIII - The Splendor of Truth (Veritatis Splendor) - Saint Pope John Paul II

XIV - The Lord's descent into hell - ancient homily for Holy Saturday

Closing prayer - Meditations on the Stations of the Cross - Saint John Henry Cardinal Newman

Music: Via Crucis by Dick Le Mair

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 3:58 Opening
• 5:18 I: Jesus is condemned to death
• 9:29 II: Jesus receives His Cross
• 12:09 III: Jesus falls the first time
• 14:40 IV: Jesus meets His Mother
• 19:50 V: Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus to carry the Cross
• 23:33 VI: Veronica wipes the Face of Jesus
• 28:18 VII: Jesus falls a second time
• 30:57 VIII: Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem
• 35:32 IX: Jesus falls the third time
• 38:02 X: Jesus is stripped of His Garments
• 42:34 XI: Jesus is nailed to the Cross
• 47:10 XII: Jesus dies upon the Cross
• 54:53 XIII: Jesus is laid in the arms of His Blessed Mother
• 58:51 XIV: Jesus is laid in the Tomb
• 1:03:24 Closing prayer
• 1:04:50 Outro

Transcript

Intro:
Hello and welcome to The Weight of Glory podcast. This is your host, Clayton Emmer.

The main idea of this podcast is to explore some of the writings of C.S. Lewis.

Today, in honor of the season of Lent, I'm posting a special episode on The Stations of the Cross.

 Sometimes referred to as the Way of the Cross, or Via Crucis, the Stations of the Cross is an ancient devotion in Christianity. The practice of meditating on the last hours of the life of Jesus initially took place only in Jerusalem along the actual path Jesus trod through the city. This path is called the Sorrowful Way (or Via Dolorosa). Even today Christians walk this path, meditating on the passion of Jesus the Christ. The place of each meditation is called a station -- hence the name Stations of the Cross. 

Today, in most Catholic churches, you will find artwork depicting each of the fourteen stations, and during Lent, Catholics gather at church to meditate on the Stations.

Among the central themes  is the atonement won for us by the suffering, death and resurrection of Christ. Writers, visual artists, and musicians have depicted these stations in a multitude of ways over the centuries.

While C.S. Lewis did not compose meditations for the Stations of the Cross, he did meditate on Christ's atonement -- and our participation in it -- in his book The Four Loves. An essay by Adam Johnson illuminates the connection this way:

What does Christ’s atonement have to do with love? It is an act of love, wherein the beloved spurns the lover. But beyond this, on the other side of the spurning, sacrifice, and death, lies the power of the resurrection: the power of an unquenchable Charity so jealous for his beloved that he will transform her, nurturing and perfecting every affection, every friendship, every element of eros within her, by imparting to her a share in his own Divine Charity. For only as such can she endure:

Only those into which Love Himself has entered will ascend to Love Himself. And these can be raised with Him only if they have, in some degree and fashion, shared His death; if the natural element in them has submitted—year after year, or in some sudden agony—to transmutation. (The Four Loves, page 187)

What follows is a Stations of the Cross text I wrote in 2004, reflecting on the images Mel Gibson provided in his movie The Passion of The Christ. Each mediation also includes a quote from one of my favorite spiritual writers.

In the show notes, you'll find links to learn more about the Stations of the Cross,  sources for the quotes used in the meditations, and a link to learn more about the album Via Crucis by Dick Le Mair. Many thanks to Le Mair for granting me the rights to include his music in this episode.

*** 

Outro:
Thanks for joining me for this episode of The Weight of Glory podcast.  The music in this podcast is provided by Dick Le Mair from his album Via Crucis.