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The New Stations of the Cross: The Way of the Cross According to Scripture
One of today’s most popular and respected Catholic writers presents the first guide to the new Stations of the Cross, reflecting the revisions made by Pope John Paul II.
A traditional devotion for Catholics for more than four hundred years, the Stations of the Cross commemorates the route Jesus traveled from being sentenced to death, crucified, and then buried in a borrowed tomb on the outskirts of Jerusalem. In the past, the devotion included a number of stations based on popular stories of piety and devotion, but not mentioned in the Gospels. Over the past eight years, however, Pope John Paul II has made substantial changes to the devotion in his Good Friday celebrations of the stations, removing those not found in the Bible and replacing them with stations that more accurately follow scriptural accounts of Christ’s passion.
The revised Stations of the Cross focuses on the condemned Jesus and on the community walking the way with him to the cross. Unrelieved by stories like Veronica’s wiping blood off the face of Jesus and his meeting with his mother; this is a story of an execution. The new stations deal directly with the pain, suffering, betrayal, and injustice to which Jesus was subjected. In explaining his reasons for revising the stations, the Pope has said that the alterations are intended to serve as a model for other devotions and to encourage the return to the Scriptures as the source of and inspiration for contemporary worship.
In this helpful, authoritative guide, Megan McKenna presents the fourteen new stations with the scriptural passages that Pope John Paul II uses on Good Friday. She also provides a basic introduction to the practices and reflections on the importance of the devotion for present-day Catholics and Episcopalians.
A traditional devotion for Catholics for more than four hundred years, the Stations of the Cross commemorates the route Jesus traveled from being sentenced to death, crucified, and then buried in a borrowed tomb on the outskirts of Jerusalem. In the past, the devotion included a number of stations based on popular stories of piety and devotion, but not mentioned in the Gospels. Over the past eight years, however, Pope John Paul II has made substantial changes to the devotion in his Good Friday celebrations of the stations, removing those not found in the Bible and replacing them with stations that more accurately follow scriptural accounts of Christ’s passion.
The revised Stations of the Cross focuses on the condemned Jesus and on the community walking the way with him to the cross. Unrelieved by stories like Veronica’s wiping blood off the face of Jesus and his meeting with his mother; this is a story of an execution. The new stations deal directly with the pain, suffering, betrayal, and injustice to which Jesus was subjected. In explaining his reasons for revising the stations, the Pope has said that the alterations are intended to serve as a model for other devotions and to encourage the return to the Scriptures as the source of and inspiration for contemporary worship.
In this helpful, authoritative guide, Megan McKenna presents the fourteen new stations with the scriptural passages that Pope John Paul II uses on Good Friday. She also provides a basic introduction to the practices and reflections on the importance of the devotion for present-day Catholics and Episcopalians.
144 pages, Paperback
First published January 21, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 11, 2014
This was a wonderful book, perfectly timed by the grace of God. The author provides exposition on critical points in the Passion narrative which merit regular re-examination. Although her perspective is decidedly Catholic and mine is not, I agree with a previous reviewer that any Christians moved by the Passion of Christ.
This writer is skilled at applying each part of the narrative to defining dilemma that Christians face every day. If it is possible that we might escape the pointed pictures of the biblical narrative itself, this author's well-placed question marks may rescue us from glossing over the drama that the cross precipitates in our own souls. Furthermore, she skillfully enlists 20th and 21st century voices to add emphasis to the unavoidable inquiries with which the cross presents us. If the measure of how much I got from the book is the number of quotes I recorded, and it does tend to be a pretty good indicator, I got more quotes from this book, both from the author and from the sources she selects than I generally do from book 5 times as long.
If there is a downside, it may come from expositing too much. What I mean is that, if we are to see in Christ before Pilate a lesson that we need to be cautious about cooperating with the government to the extent that we can very nearly assume that all wars are wrong, we may lose the specific in the general. We may begin to see the Passion narrative as SO tied to types and contemporary questions that we lose sight of the unique God Man Himself and the sacrifice that only He could make on our behalf at that moment in time. Plus, this author's applying the Gospel's narrative to global issues and movements may unintentionally keep us from personal application. Well, since I can't bring about the downfall of the military-industrial complex today, I will close my Bible and watch TV.
I don't mean that this is the author's intention. She has a couple of passages in this book specifically to fight this reaction, one in which she says the best we can hope for in this fallen world, before Christ restores His own Kingdom is to slow down the regression of this culture by well-thought-out and self-sacrificial passive resistance. In this, I can't argue with her. The epistle of First Peter, written in an era when the government's bigger meant active persecution of Christians, has already had me questioning my inner conservative which does not always agree with Christ within. This book provides another lens through which to look at the overlap between individual Christian, church, global universal Church, the state, and even bigger forces. The authors deftness at avoiding both shrillness and cliché mean that her words will be with me for a while.
This writer is skilled at applying each part of the narrative to defining dilemma that Christians face every day. If it is possible that we might escape the pointed pictures of the biblical narrative itself, this author's well-placed question marks may rescue us from glossing over the drama that the cross precipitates in our own souls. Furthermore, she skillfully enlists 20th and 21st century voices to add emphasis to the unavoidable inquiries with which the cross presents us. If the measure of how much I got from the book is the number of quotes I recorded, and it does tend to be a pretty good indicator, I got more quotes from this book, both from the author and from the sources she selects than I generally do from book 5 times as long.
If there is a downside, it may come from expositing too much. What I mean is that, if we are to see in Christ before Pilate a lesson that we need to be cautious about cooperating with the government to the extent that we can very nearly assume that all wars are wrong, we may lose the specific in the general. We may begin to see the Passion narrative as SO tied to types and contemporary questions that we lose sight of the unique God Man Himself and the sacrifice that only He could make on our behalf at that moment in time. Plus, this author's applying the Gospel's narrative to global issues and movements may unintentionally keep us from personal application. Well, since I can't bring about the downfall of the military-industrial complex today, I will close my Bible and watch TV.
I don't mean that this is the author's intention. She has a couple of passages in this book specifically to fight this reaction, one in which she says the best we can hope for in this fallen world, before Christ restores His own Kingdom is to slow down the regression of this culture by well-thought-out and self-sacrificial passive resistance. In this, I can't argue with her. The epistle of First Peter, written in an era when the government's bigger meant active persecution of Christians, has already had me questioning my inner conservative which does not always agree with Christ within. This book provides another lens through which to look at the overlap between individual Christian, church, global universal Church, the state, and even bigger forces. The authors deftness at avoiding both shrillness and cliché mean that her words will be with me for a while.
June 21, 2013
This is a good book explaining the revised Stations of the Cross. Even if you're not Catholic, you will enjoy reading this. The New Stations are all scripture based, which to me makes a lot more sense than conjecture.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews