STATIONS OF THE CROSS...

... SUDDENLY ...

He is Risen!

Christ is King!

• We do know that Jesus was betrayed by one disciple.
• Ten disciples ran away after he was arrested.
• One disciple denied Jesus three times.
  
  
• The beloved one stayed with him!

And, His Mother Mary stayed with her Son all the way through.

We want to thank all our users during the Lent and Easter 2024.

Please continue using the Stations of the Cross during the year, it is a rather nice Friday exercise.

Our Step-by-Step Rosary community commenced our pre-fasting on Septuagesima Sunday, and we were supposed to be ready for the Fasting when Ash Wednesday came.

We are in a learning process and the fasting is a way for us to focus on our prayers. It is also a way to realize all the temptations around us. 

The fasting is different from each person and we love it that way. It is better to try, to fail, to rise and continue.
We have all different vices to battle. We have managed to produce several Stations of the Cross-booklets, which turned out nicely. We had the concept and booklet ready already in 2015. It has improved over the years, but 2024 was mile stone. The work is completed. It will in due time be available for purchase, but we are in no rush.

We, the StationsoftheCross.org, released our first website before Easter 2020. At the time, we had realized that we needed to assist people struggling with lockdowns and other harsch measurements implemented by governments worldwide - so all our information and illustrations were out for free.

• ... in the year of 2020 - our churches were locked and closed before Easter.
  
  
•  ... in 2021; our Easter celebrations were also closed - just like the Christmas celebrations were "limited".
  
  
• ... in 2022 ... the Churches were now open for both Easter as well as for Christmas!
  
  
• ... in 2023 ... life seemed to come back to people.
  
  
• ... in 2024 ... It seems that the Lent 2024 were rather flawless, but, not really. 

• Holy Friday and its Via Crucis 2024 had two stations "changed".
  
  
  • Station number 9 had a new title
    ("Jesus is Stripped of His Garments" instead of "Jesus falls the third time towards Calvary")
    
    
  • Station number 11 had a new title
    ("Jesus' Cry of Abandonment" instead of "Jesus is Nailed to the Cross").
    
    

How do we interpret this change? It is a rather big one as it changes the actual stations.  Are pilgrimage sites going to change its Station statues?
Does all the illustrations hanging on a wall in a church need to be changed too?

• Holy Thursday; We know that Pope Francis washed the feet and kissed the feet of twelve women.
  This is a quite a symbolic issue as Jesus washed the feet of his disciples.
  

How do we interpret this change? 

• Before Christmas 2023, we had the debacle of the gay couple blessings which many bishops opposed.
  It is called "same-sex couples" but this also mean blessings of all the men and women who live together as a married couple but are not yet married. Or the "elderly" couple who have divorced and now live together with a new spouse.
• We have followed the failure of the synod of synodality - or what is "seen" as a failure. 
• We have followed the Catholic cardinals, bishops and priests in Germany. 

Stations of the Cross can be used regularly on Fridays but we also know that it is popular on pilgrimages.
Lent is of course the season highlight but we hope that our material is used all through the year.

We are happy to be at service and that you as a user is using our website. We have over the years produced Stations of the Cross booklets that are not yet for sale. As mentioned above, the 2024 was a productive year and we managed to find what we wanted concerning structure and format. It has taken us some five years with slight developments over the years, but now, we nailed it.

We are that one disciple NOT abandoning our Father or our Mother in Heaven.

... and then comes the Resurrection!

Resurrection, Durand after vanLeyden.

The Art of Christianity Collection, Stockholm, inv.nr AP00057.