Since the very early days of the Christian Church the faithful have had a desire to participate with Jesus in his walk of suffering. Pilgrims still go to Jerusalem to trace His steps from the Governor’s Palace where Pontius Pilate passed sentence upon Jesus, and required him to carry his own cross to the place of His execution through the streets of the city and out to the hill at Calvary where He died. The Gospels give us remarkable details about that excruciating walk and the pilgrims wish to commemorate each step along the way. In Jerusalem, the Path is called the Via Dolorosa or The Way of Sorrows.
The desire to walk that path is high, but very many Christians are not able, for a host of reasons, to go to the actual place and walk the actual streets where the original event took place. The Church has enabled Christians all over the world to walk in the footsteps of Jesus in a spiritual fashion by meditating on the events as detailed in the Gospels. The Stations of the Cross is a combination of readings, prayers, and devotions designed to bring the worshipper to the place of Jesus’ conviction, torment, struggle and death in their hearts and minds. It can’t possibly take the place fully of making an actual Pilgrimage to Jerusalem, but The Stations of the Cross makes possible some sort of participation with our Lord in His suffering.
There are many different varieties of the Stations of the Cross. The Church has never defined a single “best” way to undertake this exercise. You can find devotions that are a brief as counting seven stations to the more modern 14 stations and a few add at the end a 15th station commemorating the Resurrection.
Some might ask, “why would you want to remember something so sorrowful and painful? Why not just concentrate on the pleasant things that Jesus did and said?” The Apostle Paul speaks of what happens when we share in Jesus’ sorrow: 2 Cor 7:10-11 Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. 11 See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done.NIV.
Remembering Jesus’ walk in His last hours of our life helps each of us to be more ready to give of ourselves and makes us more steadfast in our commitment to live our lives following the example of our Savior