Via Dolorosa: A Guide for Christians to Pray the Stations of the Cross

By Martin Shannon

Based on early Christian practice, pilgrims to Jerusalem reconstructed the events of Good Friday along the “Way of Suffering,” the Via Dolorosa. The Spanish nun, Egeria, writes of her own experience with this in her fourth century Holy Week journal. In the Middle Ages, the Franciscans and Dominicans particularly picked up on the ritual, and transported it from Jerusalem to chapels and churches outside the Holy Land. If one could not make the pilgrimage to the place of Jesus’s passion, then the “place” could be brought to the pilgrim . . . even in his or her own home town.
 
Over the centuries, the Stations of the Cross spread across Europe and the British Isles. Eventually, fourteen stations were set, with accompanying books of readings and prayers to guide the Good Friday pilgrims as they walked the way with Christ—going “with him” as he bore his cross from the court of Pilate to the hill of Golgotha, from his judgment and condemnation to his death and deposition from the cross.

Allow these scriptures, meditations, and prayers to accompany you as you walk and pray the Stations of the Cross with Christ.
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Paraclete Press
• Release date: Jan 21, 2020
• ISBN: 9781640604650

Book preview

VIA

DOLOROSA

A Guide for Christians to

Pray the Stations of the Cross  

Martin Shannon, CJ

2020 First Printing

Via Dolorosa A Guide for Christians to Pray the Stations of the Cross

Copyright © 2020 by Martin Shannon, CJ

ISBN 978-1-64060-464-3

All longer Scripture quotations are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Brief Scripture quotations, placed immediately under the name of each station, are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Two short quotations from St. Bonaventure are taken from The Tree of Life in Bonaventure: Classics in Western Spirituality, trans. Ewert Cousins (New York: Paulist Press, 1978), 158, 163.

The Paraclete Press name and logo (dove on cross) are trademarks of Paraclete Press, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Shannon, Martin, author.

Title: Via Dolorosa : a guide for Christians to pray the stations of the cross / Martin Shannon, CJ.

Description: Brewster, Massachusetts : Paraclete Press, 2020. | Summary: A guide to pray the stations of the cross. At each station, there are scripture quotations, along with insightful comments and prayers-- Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019035995 | ISBN 9781640604643 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781640604650 (epub) | ISBN 9781640604667 (mobi) | ISBN 9781640604674 (pdf)

Subjects: LCSH: Stations of the Cross--Meditations. | Benedictine movement (Anglican Communion)--Prayers and devotions.

Classification: LCC BX2040 .S53 2020 | DDC 232.96--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019035995

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All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in an electronic retrieval system, or transmitted