There are essential prayers that most Catholics memorize, particularly those recited in the rosary (Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be). With these prayers, the rosary has served a central way that Catholics meditate, particularly on its twenty mysteries.
Many Catholics also attend the Stations on the Cross on Fridays during Lent, though they do not tend to memorize the Stations or the devotional prayers associated with them. If we memorized the order of the Stations and a few basic prayers, it would become much easier to meditate on Christ’s Passion and to say the Stations on Fridays throughout the year, which was a devotional practice of St. John Paul.
Here are some elements of the traditional Stations, which can easily be memorized: their order, the opening prayer, the devotional prayer of St. Alphonsus Liguori, and some stanzas of the Stabat Mater.
The Stations
- Jesus is Condemned to Die
- Jesus is Made to Bear His Cross
- Jesus Falls the First Time
- Jesus Meets His Mother
- Simon Helps Jesus Carry His Cross
- Veronica Wipes Jesus’ Face
- Jesus Falls the Second Time
- Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem
- Jesus Falls the Third Time
- Jesus is Stripped
- Jesus is Nailed to the Cross
- Jesus Dies on the Cross
- Jesus is Taken Down from the Cross
- Jesus is Laid in the Tomb
Opening Prayer
V. We adore you, Christ, and we praise you.
R. Because by your holy Cross, you have redeemed the world.
Devotion Prayer of St. Alphonsus (repeated in his Stations)
I love Thee, Jesus my love; I repent of ever having offended Thee. Never permit me to offend Thee again. Grant that I may love Thee always; and then do with me what Thou wilt.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be
Selected Stanzas of the Stabat Mater
At the cross her station keeping,
Stood the mournful Mother weeping,
Close to Jesus to the last.
Through her heart, His sorrow sharing,
All His bitter anguish bearing,
Now at length the sword had passed.
Oh, how sad and sore distressed
Was that Mother highly blest,
Of the sole begotten One!
Christ above in torment hangs.
She beneath beholds the pangs
Of her dying glorious Son.
Is there one who would not weep,
Whelmed in miseries so deep,
Christ’s dear Mother to behold?
Can the human heart refrain
From partaking in her pain,
In that Mother’s pain untold?
Bruised, derided, cursed, defiled,
She beheld her tender Child,
All with bloody scourges rent.
O thou Mother: fount of love!
Touch my spirit from above,
Make my heart with thine accord.
Additional Resources
- St. Alphonsus’ full Stations of the Cross
- Audio stations on Formed.org
- Stabat Mater (Gregorian Chant)
- Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater (1736)
- Rossini, Stabat Mater (1841)
- Dvořák , Stabat Mater (1877)
- Verdi’s Stabat Mater (1896)
0 Comments