www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West Used "Both Lungs" this past weekend

Dear Hal, All devotions to the Passion of Our Lord that are from antiquity are fine. The Via Dolorosa at Jerusalem was reverently marked out from the earliest times and has been the goal of pious pilgrims ever since the days of Constantine. Tradition asserts that the Blessed Virgin used to visit daily the scenes of Christ's Passion and St. Jerome speaks of the crowds of pilgrims from all countries who used to visit the holy places in his day. A desire to reproduce the holy places in other lands, in order to satisfy the devotion of those who were hindered from making the actual pilgrimage, seems to have manifested itself at quite an early date. At the monastery of San Stefano at Bologna a group of connected chapels were constructed as early as the fifth century, by St. Petronius, Bishop of Bologna, which were intended to represent the more important shrines of Jerusalem, and in consequence, this monastery became familiarly known as "Hierusalem". These may perhaps be regarded as the germ from which the Stations afterwards developed, though it is tolerably certain that nothing that we have before about the fifteenth century can strictly be called a Way of the Cross in the modern sense. Several travellers, it is true, who visited the Holy Land during the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, mention a "Via Sacra", i.e., a settled route along which pilgrims were conducted, but there is nothing in their accounts to identify this with the Via Crucis, as we understand it, including special stopping-places with indulgences attached, and such indulgenced Stations must, after all, be considered to be the true origin of the devotion as now practised.

I personally like all the devotions to the Passion of Our Lord, but the Stations are my favorite. The important thing (as always) is that the devotion is used by us to bring us closer to the Lord and deepen our relationship with Him. They are then, a tool...and an ancient one at that. Use whatever works for YOU...but know that the Stations are among the oldest and (I think) the best. If you are ever blessed with the grace of making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land of Jerusalem, you have a chance to make them...and they are led by either Latin Rite priests or local and visiting Orthodox priests. Until then...many of us must be satisfied with making them in a church where they have been established.

Lord Jesus Christ, we adore You and we bless You, because by Your Holy Cross, You have redeemed the world!

In His great love for us,
+Fr. Gregory

Bless, Father Gregory!

You will forgive my coming onto the Forum briefly during the Great Fast as I was led to read your excellent posts on the subject of the Stations of the Cross!

Both St Seraphim of Sarov and St Tikhon of Zadonsk loved the Stations of the Cross, as you know.

In fact, St Tikhon of Zadonsk actually had large pictures of a form of the Stations of the Cross, i.e. Christ carrying His Cross to Golgotha, in his monastic cell, as we read in his biographies.

The Akathist to the Passion of Christ was written by Bishop Innocent of Cherson and reflected the Stations of the Cross - in fact, one version of the Akathist that I have in my possession that was translated into English by John M. Neale is actually preceded by a devotion to the Five Wounds of Christ!

Similarly, the Orthodox Passia Service was, I am told by a friend of ours who has studied the matter in depth, based as a kind of liturgical "Orthodox Stations" for use during the Great Fast.

Today, in Western Ukraine and elsewhere, the Stations of the Cross are popular, not only in EC churches, but in Orthodox parishes as well.

I ONLY use my Orthodox version .

One may also use the Stations of the Cross to pray the 15 decades of the Rosary with the 15th decade being the Resurrection of Christ.

One may also pray a decade for each of the Seven Words of Christ on the Cross - a truly moving spiritual experience.

Kissing your right hand, I again implore your blessing and wish you a happy and holy Great Fast!

Your unworthy servant,

Alex

Alex, you are a blessing and an inspiration.

Hello to The Roamin' Catholic!
If you want to see a truly beautiful church, next time you're in Scranton visit St.Vladimir's Ukrainian Catholic Church just across the bridge from St. Mary's Byzantine Catholic Church. Better still, come to a weekend Divine Liturgy at 4:00pm Saturday or 9:00am Sunday - a spiritually uplifting experience is guaranteed.

I have been to both St. Vlad's and St. Mary's.

I was at a divine liturgy at St. Vlad's and I went into St. Mary's for confession and to look at the church. Both are very nice.

Have also been to St. Nick's in Old Forge - that is a Byzantine Rite church.

When I get a chance I am going to go to an Orthodox church to see what they do.