Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 277.

YOUCAT Question n. 277 – What are the Stations of the Cross?

(Youcat answer) Following Jesus on his Way of the Cross by praying and meditating on the fourteen Stations is a very ancient devotion in the Church, which is practiced especially in Lent and Holy week.

The fourteen Stations of the Cross are: 1 – Jesus is condemned to death  2 – Jesus takes up his Cross  3 – Jesus falls the first time 4 – Jesus meets his sorrowful Mother  5 – Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the Cross  6 – Veronica wipes the face of Jesus  7 – Jesus falls the second time  8 – Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem  9 – Jesus falls the third time 10 – Jesus is stripped of his garments 11 – Jesus is nailed to the Cross 12 – Jesus dies on the Cross 13 – Jesus is taken down from the Cross and presented to his sorrowful Mother 14 – Jesus is laid in the tomb

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 2669) The prayer of the Church venerates and honors the Heart of Jesus just as it invokes his most holy name. It adores the incarnate Word and his Heart which, out of love for men, he allowed to be pierced by our sins. Christian prayer loves to follow the way of the cross in the Savior's steps. The stations from the Praetorium to Golgotha and the tomb trace the way of Jesus, who by his holy Cross has redeemed the world.

Reflecting and meditating 

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 1676) Pastoral discernment is needed to sustain and support popular piety and, if necessary, to purify and correct the religious sense which underlies these devotions so that the faithful may advance in knowledge of the mystery of Christ (Cf. John Paul II, CT 54). Their exercise is subject to the care and judgment of the bishops and to the general norms of the Church. At its core the piety of the people is a storehouse of values that offers answers of Christian wisdom to the great questions of life. The Catholic wisdom of the people is capable of fashioning a vital synthesis.... It creatively combines the divine and the human, Christ and Mary, spirit and body, communion and institution, person and community, faith and homeland, intelligence and emotion. This wisdom is a Christian humanism that radically affirms the dignity of every person as a child of God, establishes a basic fraternity, teaches people to encounter nature and understand work, provides reasons for joy and humor even in the midst of a very hard life. For the people this wisdom is also a principle of discernment and an evangelical instinct through which they spontaneously sense when the Gospel is served in the Church and when it is emptied of its content and stifled by other interests (CELAM, Third General Conference (Puebla, 1979), Final Document § 448 (tr. NCCB, 1979); cf. Paul VI, EN 48).

(The next question is:  What is the purpose of a Christian funeral?)