Of all the pious exercises connected with the veneration of the Cross, none is more popular among the faithful than the Via Crucis. Through this pious exercise, the faithful movingly follow the final earthly journey of Christ: from the Mount of Olives, where the Lord, "in a small estate called Gethsemane" was taken by anguish, to Calvary where he was crucified between two thieves, to the garden where he was placed in freshly hewn tomb.
The love of the Christian faithful for this devotion is amply attested by the numerous Via Crucis erected in so many churches, shrines, cloisters, in the countryside, and on mountain pathways where the various stations are very evocative.
The Via Crucis is a journey made in the Holy Spirit, that divine fire which burned in the heart of Jesus and brought him to Calvary. This is a journey well esteemed by the Church since it has retained a living memory of the words and gestures of the final earthly days of her Spouse and Lord.
In the Via Crucis, various strands of Christian piety coalesce: the idea of life being a journey or pilgrimage; as a passage from earthly exile to our true home in Heaven; the deep desire to be conformed to the Passion of Christ; the demands of following Christ, which imply that his disciples must follow behind the Master, daily carrying their own crosses.
-Directory on Popular Piety, 131-133
For today's prayer, the Church Ladies suggest you consider Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's meditations and prayers from Lent, 2005.
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