Standing by the Cross on Fridays

During Lent, we get to resume the solemn  and tender practice of praying the Stations of the Cross every Friday. Whether at 3 p.m., the hour of Our Lord's death, or 7 p.m., or whatever time you are able, we walk with Jesus through his mighty Passion and take our place with Mary and John at the foot of his cross, in solidarity and sorrow. We, of course, have the relief of knowing what happens three days later.

Whether we use the little booklet containing St. Alphonsus Ligouri's Way of the Cross or a Stations "rosary," whether we join other Catholics at church in a Stations service or pray the 14 stations in a corner of our room, we find ourselves growing closer to Jesus and his mother with each stop we make along the way to Calvary.

And this exercise is a powerful one. The Lord told St. Gertrude, "... Any man, although he feels overwhelmed by the burden of his crimes, must hope for pardon through the offering of my Passion and death. For there does not exist on earth any more efficient remedy against sin than the loving memory of my Passion."*

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*As quoted by Francois Mauriac in Holy Thursday: The Night That Changed the World, p. 85.