Lent Begins Stations of the Cross

Lent is the start of many traditions and celebrations in the Catholic faith leading up to Good Friday and Easter Sunday. One of those traditions is the devotion and commemoration of the final hours or Passion of Jesus, known as the Stations of the Cross or the Way of the Cross.

Traditionally the Stations of the Cross are done Friday evenings throughout Lent, especially on Good Friday. The tradition as chapel devotion began with St. Francis of Assisi and extended throughout the Catholic Church in the medieval period.

The object of the Stations is to help the faithful to make a spiritual pilgrimage of prayer, through meditating upon the chief scenes of Christ's sufferings and death. It has become one of the most popular devotions for Roman Catholics.

In the traditional form, the Stations themselves are usually a series of 14 pictures or sculptures depicting the following scenes:

1.    Jesus is condemned to death

2.    Jesus is given his cross

3.    Jesus falls the first time

4.    Jesus meets His Mother

5.    Simon of Cyrene carries the cross

6.    Veronica wipes the face of Jesus

7.    Jesus falls the second time

8.    Jesus meets the daughters of Jerusalem

9.    Jesus falls the third time

10. Jesus is stripped of His garments

11. Crucifixion: Jesus is nailed to the cross

12. Jesus dies on the cross

13. Jesus' body is removed from the cross

14. Jesus is laid in the tomb and covered in incense.