{"id":491,"date":"2008-03-19T10:00:28","date_gmt":"2008-03-19T10:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2008\/03\/the-way-of-the-cross.html"},"modified":"2008-03-19T10:00:28","modified_gmt":"2008-03-19T10:00:28","slug":"the-way-of-the-cross","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/03\/the-way-of-the-cross.html","title":{"rendered":"The Way of the Cross"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nUpdate:\u00a0 <\/u>
\nHere is the English text of the Via Crucis. <\/em>\u00a0<\/a>
\nAs you know, one of the traditional Roman Holy Week observances is the Stations of the Cross at the Coliseum. Every year, the Station meditations are authored by a different writer – in 2005, famously, Cardinal Ratzinger wrote the meditations.<\/a>
\nThis year’s Stations have been composed by Cardinal Zen of Hong Kong and the art accompanying the Stations at the Vatican website has an Asian setting – they are beautiful.
\nA CNS article:<\/a><\/p>\n

“The pope wanted me to bring to the Colosseum the voice of those faraway sisters and brothers,” he wrote in the introduction to the mediations and prayers released by the Vatican in Italian March 18. The 64-page booklet was illustrated with 20th-century Chinese Christian art from the Society of Divine Word’s archives.
\nWhile Christ’s suffering and passion are the focus of the service, “behind him there are many people, past and present,” such as all the living martyrs of the 21st century, he wrote.
\nCardinal Zen said he accepted the pope’s invitation with “little hesitation,” but soon discovered, much to his surprise, that his early drafts did not reflect a very Christian attitude.
\nHe said he had to step back and purify himself of the “less than charitable feelings” he had toward those who made Jesus suffer and who “are making our brothers and sisters suffer in today’s world.”
\nIn “thinking about persecution,” he wrote, “let us also (think) about the persecutors” and how even they are being called to salvation by God.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Stations are only in Italian at this point, but I’d expect more languages available by Friday. <\/a>
\n\u00a0Benedict won’t be walking the entire circuit this year:<\/a><\/p>\n

Pope Benedict will reduce his activity at this week’s Good Friday procession by watching most of the service from a vantage point instead of walking around Rome’s ancient Colosseum, a spokesman said on Tuesday.<\/span><\/span>
\nRev. Federico Lombardi confirmed the change, reported earlier on Tuesday by the French religious news agency I-Media.
\n<\/span>Lombardi said there were no worries about the health of the pope, who will turn 81 during his trip to the United States in April.
\n<\/span>“It is reasonable that he would want to conserve his energy,” Lombardi said in response to a question.
\n<\/span>Instead of walking around the Colosseum for all 14 of the “stations of the cross” as he did in previous years, the pope will watch most of the event from Rome’s nearby Palatine hill.
\n<\/span>Benedict is expected to walk the procession only for the last three “stations”. The 14 stations commemorate the events between Christ being condemned to death and his burial.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Vatican’s Holy Week Page.<\/a>
\nToday at the GA, the Pope focused his words on the Triduum, with an appeal regarding Tibet:<\/a><\/p>\n

The pope is following “with great trepidation” what is taking place in Tibet, and feels “sadness and sorrow in the face of so much suffering”, issuing an appeal to recall that “violence never resolves problems, but only worsens them”, and asking that “God may illuminate the minds of all and give each one the courage to choose the path of dialogue and tolerance”.\u00a0 These words for the tormented Asian region today concluded the last general audience before Easter, at which Benedict XVI had already issued an appeal to include in prayer “the dramatic events and situations that in these days are weighing upon our brothers in so many parts of the world”, and pointed to the “great hope” of the days of Holy Week. “We know”, he said to the 15,000 faithful present at the general audience, “that hatred, division, and violence never have the last word in the events of history.\u00a0 These days renew within us the great hope that the crucified and risen Christ has overcome the world: love is stronger than hatred, he has conquered”.\u00a0 We must “work in communion with Christ, for a world founded upon peace, justice, and love.\u00a0 This is a task that involves all of us”.
\nAgain today, the audience was divided between the Paul VI audience hall and the basilica of St. Peter’s, because of the great numbers of the crowds, and Benedict XVI dedicated it to illustrating the days in which the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus are commemorated.\u00a0 “The next three days”, he said, “make us relive the central events of our redemption”, the “essential nucleus of the Christian faith”.\u00a0 They are “days that we can consider as a single day, the heart and fulcrum of the liturgical year and of the Church’s life”.
\nBenedict XVI, greeted with choruses of good wishes for his name day, then indicated the main characteristics of the days of the Triduum: tomorrow, Holy Thursday, the Church “remembers the last supper, during which the Lord instituted the sacrament of the Eucharist and of the ministerial priesthood”.\u00a0 “That same night, he left the new commandment, of fraternal love”.\u00a0 Before entering into the commemoration of the last days of Jesus, “in every Christian community the bishop and priests renew their promises”, and the oil of the catechumens, of the sick, and the sacred chrism are blessed.\u00a0 It is “a very important moment for every diocesan community gathered around its pastor”.
\nOn Good Friday, “the liturgy does not provide for the celebration of Mass, but the assembly gathers to meditate on the great mystery of sin and evil”.\u00a0 As “the last moment for meditation”, Christian tradition has given rise to various manifestations of popular piety: outstanding among these is the Stations of the Cross, “a pious exercise that in the course of time has been enriched with many spiritual and artistic manifestations”.
\nHoly Saturday “is marked by a profound silence; the churches are bare, and no special liturgies are provided”.\u00a0 Believers “wait together with Mary, meditating and praying”.\u00a0 On this day, the pope said, great importance is attached to the sacrament of reconciliation, an irreplaceable means for purification.\u00a0 The day ends with the Easter vigil, “which flows into the most important Sunday of history, that of the resurrection of Christ”, “the definitive liberation from the ancient slavery to sin and death”.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Update:\u00a0 Here is the English text of the Via Crucis. \u00a0 As you know, one of the traditional Roman Holy Week observances is the Stations of the Cross at the Coliseum. Every year, the Station meditations are authored by a different writer – in 2005, famously, Cardinal Ratzinger wrote the meditations. This year’s Stations have…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Way of the Cross - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/03\/the-way-of-the-cross.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Way of the Cross - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Update:\u00a0 Here is the English text of the Via Crucis. \u00a0 As you know, one of the traditional Roman Holy Week observances is the Stations of the Cross at the Coliseum. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. 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