Stations of the Cross
Eirenist
Shipmate
Apologies if this has been raised previously, but here goes:
A member of our congregation has asked me why the Stations of the Cross in our church are displayed 'anticlockwise', starting at the East end of the North side, progressing to the West End, then back on the South side ending at the East end by what we term the Resurrection (formerly Requiem) altar. I believe this is the traditional order.
Thinking quickly, I said that traditionally the North side was the abode of darkness and the Devil, the South that of light and God. So, the series starts with the apparent triumph of evil with the condemnation of Jesus, and ends with the redemption of the world by his sacrificial death. I have no idea if this is right, but can any Shipmate enlighten me with the true explanation?
A member of our congregation has asked me why the Stations of the Cross in our church are displayed 'anticlockwise', starting at the East end of the North side, progressing to the West End, then back on the South side ending at the East end by what we term the Resurrection (formerly Requiem) altar. I believe this is the traditional order.
Thinking quickly, I said that traditionally the North side was the abode of darkness and the Devil, the South that of light and God. So, the series starts with the apparent triumph of evil with the condemnation of Jesus, and ends with the redemption of the world by his sacrificial death. I have no idea if this is right, but can any Shipmate enlighten me with the true explanation?
Comments
The pictures themselves are Edwardian drawings contemporaneous (AFAIK) with the church (built in 1908), and the direction in which the various peeps are travelling, so to speak, is as described.
Whether it has any significance or not, I couldn't say, but the tradition in some Western churches used to be to read the Gospel facing north towards the abode of the heathen, rather than the forces of darkness, but, hey.....
From the discussion of Praying for departed clergy (and the burial thereof):
So perhaps you're reading the Gospel facing north in the hope of evangelizing the crocodiles.
(In actual fact, we read the Gospel in the midst of the community of faith, symbolic - AIUI - of Our Lord's presence in the midst of His people).
By the way, brilliant quick thinking on your part, Eirenist!
Firstly the less liturgically high traditions the few prayers the people know by rote. They will know the Lord's prayer and the Grace but do not assume people know anything more. An alternative that they would understand is to pick one of the great hymns and sing a verse of that after each station. It is worth checking for the original text which is often longer for instance When I Survey the Wonderous Cross had at least six verses rather than the current four. Recent generations have tended to shorten older hymns. The lower liturgically traditions tend to know a lot of hymns as it in many ways replaced the simple liturgical prayers in devotional practice.
Second, when handling anything to do with Mary, it is fine to do a meditation on Mary's experience. It is likely to upset people if it is followed by anything that might be interpreted as a prayer to Mary
Third, with non-Biblical stations, you have two choices. One is to leave them in and link with a wider experience of the journey, this may be by tying it into a Biblical passage. For instance, Veronica's veil could be linked back to Mary's anointing with oil at Bethany. The alternative is to skip.
Fourth, if you have Reformed types then the simple answer is to make sure there is a Bible passage at each station. Nothing is likely to calm them down as much as hearing the Bible read.
The version of the Scriptural Way of the Cross published by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops can be found here. (I couldn't find a version at the websites of the Catholic Bishops' Conferences of England and Wales or of Scotland, but maybe there is one somewhere.)
Hope this helps.
Now our new vicar had announced he will not agree to Stations in his church, as he says it is RC and he does not agree with it.
Which is why I was interested in alternative ecumenical ideas.
Instead he has proposed an alternative which is not only during the day so will exclude some who work, but also he proposes to include a Celtic Communion, which almost certainly means the RCs cannot officially participate, though individually some may be happy to do so.
It will certainly be thrown out by the churches together committee.
The then Anglican vicar I think wanting to get rid of it, placed it with the URC while they were in vacancy. The thing was that it then went to two of people who were engaged with worship leading in the congregation. I think it went out with a bang rather than the whimper he hoped.
The Elim guys are involved, tend to irritate me by using it as an excuse to hand out tracts, the Elim minister has performed Jesus on occasion.
* there was one memorable year when we had white clothed Jesus daubed with black hand prints at every station by a range of different actors, to show the sin laid upon him. That one had poetry rather than a fairly well known hymn, but that was a one off. Same group no longer runs the nativity service on Christmas Eve, which is another story entirely.
I shall be interested to see how he does it, given that he seems to come from a more 'High-Church Anglican' than a 'wannabe Roman Catholic' background!
I've been to a very small number of services involving The Stations, but have always found them helpful.
It was much appreciated, but I could not help wonder why our vicar had thought this was Roman and therefore inappropriate in his church, yet here we were, doing much the same thing in condensed form, [but necessarily excluding those who work, as it was in the afternoon, and as part of the Mothers’ Union meeting it was not really open as such to other churches ( though they would have been welcome if they had turned up). ] Oh well....
Father NewPriest has, perhaps sensibly (so that he doesn't have to do it all himself!), asked various people to lead Stations, and my turn is on 5th April (if I live). This gives us scope to' do our own thing', and I have at hand some quite sensible and objective material from Iona, which I have said I will use.
I'm afraid the sentimental maudlins of some mediaeval Pope don't cut the mustard for me.....
At the end of Stations, the Faithful repair to the nearby Blessed Sacrament Chapel for a simple modern-language version of Night Prayer, which is conducted by Father NP. This seems a suitable way to conclude the service.
Last week's Stations had a congregation of 8. Not a lot, I know, but roughly what we've had in the past. One couple, who do appreciate Stations, are away at the moment. The BS Chapel accommodates a dozen or so, beyond which it gets a bit crowded!
I don't get the reference. What are you referring to? Which pope?
There are no official texts for stations. Al I ask is that if the Resurrection is mentioned, it is not at a separate station from the burial. That the place of burial and resurrection are identical seems to me the Christian faith in a nutshell.
Not a bad idea - I'll give it a try next week!
Sorry, that was a rather snarky reference to something served up at Stations one year by our previous priest. I'm afraid I can't give chapter and verse, but it was (a) by a Pope, and (b) exceedingly sentimental......
I agree with you re the final Station.
the founder of the Redemptorists. Alphonsus expended great energy in preaching God's love for all and used his considerable talents in developing strong devotional life among both clergy and laity. His prayers for the Stations which sound wonderful in Italian are not quite English in style, but were and still are popular in RC parishes for the Stations.
As VB says there are no set words since the Stations are a pious devotion and not as such a liturgical and sacramental action.
Possibly the reference to the pope may also have been BF's previous priest's prayer for the pope's intentions which traditionally (in RC parishes) conclude the devotion.
I'm afraid the words "compassion fatigue" occur to me about stations. I feel I'm meant to feel great sorrow and I don't so I feel a fraud.
I am sure I would feel just the same about St Alphonsus's devotions as I do about typical evangelical prayers and hymns. They are trying to make me feel ...
Until 4 years ago when I retired we did have it at 7.30 pm to enable me to also attend.
There were 8 of us this week. It will usually be between 6 and 10 people attending. Not bad when the most we ever get these days on a Sunday morning is 15. Having not had a priest now for almost 8 years we do it ourselves. Our retired priests, who are not getting any younger, have enough to do covering Sunday and Tuesday mornings mass, monthly Saturday Walsingham Cell Mass and Holy Week and other holy days and festivals without expecting them to lead Stations too.
This week I took overall lead with the opening and closing prayers and introduction to each station and I did the prayers at each station. Others present took turns to read the bible readings at each stations. We do it in an informal way and no-one is made to feel uneasy if they mistake a mistake.
Whoever leads the service decides which version we will follow and usually what we will sing as we move around. This week we used the Anglican Stations of the Cross as published with Common Worship (can be downloaded for printing on A5 paper from the Oremus website). Sometimes we use other versions such as those from the Walsingham Pilgrims Manual. We try to generally use versions that are acceptable to us as Catholic Anglicans and I fully understand what Bishop Finger means by not using 'sentimental maudlins of some mediaeval Pope'. We especially avoid that type of Stations of the Cross.
This week we sang verses from traditional hymns - My song is love unknown, When I survey and There is a green hill. Another week we may use Taize music - Ubi charitas, O Lord hear my prayer, Jesus remember me etc. Another week we may use Graham Kendrick - Meekness and majesty, The Servant King, My Lord what love is this etc. Very varied music which reflects what we also do on Sundays at our Parish Mass.
Re Stations by St Alphonsus, no, they're not what I meant at all. I have a copy, and have used them in the past. All quite seemly IMHO.
I think what I had in mind (and it obviously didn't stick in my mind!) was some sentimental stuff which harped on and on about the weeping and wailing of Our Lady et al, trying to make us feel guilty, as @venbede says. But Father OldPriest was rather prone to that sort of hand-wringing, as he thought it made him look more Holy......
Stazione IV Gesu' incontra la sua Santissima Madre
Oh! Dio! E non bastava a mia gran confusione il vedere Gesu' coperto di dolore in abito di peccatore,che vi si aggiunge anche la Madre a rimprovero del mio peccato ! Maledetto peccato ! penosissimo incontro, afflittissima Madre.Nel Vostro spasimo leggo la mia perfidia.So che se le mie gravissime colpe trafiggono Gesu' nel corpo,a Voi,o gran Vergine, trafiggono il cuore ……………… ecc.
The above in English (of a sort)
Fourth station Jesus meets His most holy Mother
Oh1 My God! And as if it was not enough to my great confusion to see Jesus in pain and dressed in sinner's clothes,now is added His mother to reprove me for my sins ! Accursed sin ! o most painful encounter ; most afflicted motherin your spasms of pain I can read my perfidy..I know that if my most grievous sins strike Jesus in his body,they strike you o great and holy Virgin through the heart ….. etc.
IV Station
'As a mother it grieved me to see my son spat upon ...' sort of thing.
It did raise my Protestant eyebrows but as it was in an RC retreat house, I went with it. When in Rome ...
I found it an interesting exercise and perspective and I did find it moving. Perhaps I'm just susceptible that way. Perhaps it was because I've recently been bereaved.
As an imaginative exercise in an Ignatian kind of way I don't particularly have an issue with it, provided we don't take it as if it really is Mary talking in a similar way to how charismatics sometimes give the impression that they are ventriloquising God with their first person prophecies.
It's all down to context, I suppose. I agree with those who say they don't like being told how to feel, though and I can see how easy it would be for popular devotional practices of this kind to topple over into sentimentality.
I always say that I'm allowed a certain amount of sentimentality as I'm Welsh but even so ...
Meanwhile, back to Stations. Our Place has been doing Stations each Friday evening in Lent, and yestere'en it was my turn to be Conductor. I couldn't find my booklet by Prior Wilfred (formerly of the Carmelites at Aylesford, Kent), so resorted to my dear friend Mr Go Ogle.
He provided me with a short, but pithy, set of meditations, with scope for personal/immediately relevant interpolations e.g. a prayer for someone suffering, or recently departed.
I began Stations with the traditional Anglican daily Collect for Lent.
Father NewPriest assisted by leading a verse (based on the relevant Station) of ' Were you there when they.......?', starting on the right note each time (not the easiest thing to do), as we moved from one Station to the next. Various members of the assembly were invited to carry the processional cross between each 3 or 4 Stations, which helped to involve peeps who might not otherwise usually be so employed.
I concluded with a general, but comprehensive, prayer provided for us by the Additional Curates Society™, and then Father NP directed us into our Blessed Sacrament Chapel for said Compline/Night Prayer.
Though I say so myself, it was a satisfying act of devotion and worship, and the good attendance (the Chapel was full) helped.
(BTW, the Franciscans - Third Order, IIRC - provide online a very short set of Stations, intended primarily for personal use. Highly recommended.)
It was not always so. This was one of the many points of contention in the Nikonian reforms in Russia- prior to that, the church of Russia processed clockwise, probably continuing an ancient tradition they had received from Constantinople. Some of the Old Believers said that counterclockwise processions were undoing the clockwise processions that had been done through the ages.
I believe at least some of the Oriental Orthodox churches do clockwise processions.