The Way of the Cross
Dear Friends of Carmel,
During this time of fasting and penance, the Church allows us to pause to celebrate the great St. Joseph. A very Happy Feast Day to all of you from all of us here at Carmel! It is very fitting that during this season of more intense effort at sanctification and true holiness, the Church should bring before us the great patron of the spiritual life, St. Joseph, the perfect model of humble obedience, strength, hope, and silent self-sacrifice to God. If anyone ever fulfilled most perfectly Christ’s injunction to labor for God “in secret” (Mt. 6:1-18), it is St. Joseph, the silent one. Please see our past newsletters about the good St. Joseph, a particularly dear Patron of Carmelites. Today, in order to encourage you to honor St. Joseph on his Feast Day and every day, we remind you of what Our Holy Mother St. Teresa declared about devotion to this great Saint:
“I cannot remember having asked Saint Joseph for anything which he did not obtain. I am quite amazed when I consider the great favors our Lord has shown me through the intercession of this blessed saint, and the many dangers, both of soul and body, from which he has delivered me. It seems that to other saints Our Lord has given the power to succor us in only one kind of necessity, but this glorious saint, I know by my experience, assists us in all kinds of necessities; hence Our Lord, it appears, wishes us to understand that as He was obedient to him when on earth (for he was called His father; and being, as it were, His tutor, he could command Him), so now in heaven He grants him whatever he asks…
Would that I could persuade all men to be devout to this glorious saint, by reason of the great experience I have had of the blessings he obtains from God! I have never known anyone who was truly devoted to him, who performed particular devotions in his honor, that did not advance more in virtue; for he assists in a special manner those souls that recommend themselves to him. During many years I was accustomed to ask some particular favor of him on his feast day, and I remember it was always granted…I only request, for the love of God, that whoever will not believe me, will prove the truth of what I say; for he will see by experience how great a blessing it is to recommend oneself to this glorious patriarch and to be devout to him.”
Stations of the Cross
We are now well on our penitential way through Lent. In our newsletter just before Ash Wednesday, we discussed the importance of meditation on the Passion and recommended beneficial reading to assist in this beautiful practice. In this brief, midst-of-Lent letter, we remind you of another simple, traditional method for this meditation: the Stations of the Cross.
If you have followed our newsletters over the past few years, you may recall our sharing the Community news of the renovation of our old sewing room into a prayerful oratory. This has become an inviting place in the Monastery, somewhat removed, where Sisters may go during retreat days for more solitude and quiet. We also conduct certain community exercises there, such as Chapter, Profession ceremonies, and even praying the Divine Office when the public chapel is in use. We recently received the great blessing of having the Stations of the Cross formally erected in this oratory, just in time for Lent.
History of the Stations of the Cross
The Stations of the Cross is primarily a Marian devotion, and some historians assert that it is even older than the rosary. The tradition is that the Blessed Virgin Mary, after Our Lord’s Ascension into Heaven, would make daily visits to the places and scenes of her Divine Son’s holy Passion and Death. Devout Christians followed her example, and as a result, the Holy Land became a place of pilgrimage from the earliest days of the Church. Christians traveled from all over the known world to walk in the footsteps of Christ, to follow the “Way of the Cross”. Countless souls made a vow to visit the sites of Our Lord’s Passion, and great indulgences were granted by the Church for doing so.
As time went on, the journey to Jerusalem became quite dangerous and difficult. Religious orders of knights sprang up to help protect the travelers on their journey. Chains of hostels (the origins of hotels) sprang up to house them, and primitive forms of banks, places where people could deposit their wealth and collect it safely upon their return, were a protection against the robbers and thieves that plagued the pilgrimage routes.
Still, the Holy Land became an ever more dangerous place to travel – and even traveling in general was both unsafe and difficult. Besides, Christians all over the world desired this privilege of such abundant spiritual benefits and indulgences. Therefore, the Church established other pilgrimage sites with the same privileges and indulgences as if the person had made a visit to the Holy Land. Eventually, the privilege of “visiting the Holy Land” was granted to every Church that has the Stations of the Cross formally erected.
How to Pray the Stations of the Cross
Just as the rosary is a method of meditating on the mysteries of Our Lord’s life and of our Redemption, the Stations are a method of meditating on His Passion in particular. The Stations have remained primarily (as explained by the history above) a “pilgrimage.” This is why it is customary and required to walk from station to station while meditating. (At public Stations in a church, the priest who leads walks to the Stations, representing those who participate in the devotion.) Stations are usually set up around the perimeter walls of a church, or perhaps outdoors in a garden setting, to facilitate the walking.
No set formula of prayers is necessary for meditating, though prayers can be very helpful to avoid distraction and keep us focused on what we are doing. Saints and spiritual authors have composed sets of meditations and prayers for the Stations of the Cross, some of which are very commonly used. However, the essential point is that, similar to praying the holy Rosary, we meditate; that is, that while we make this virtual pilgrimage to the Holy Land, we make it in our hearts, we place ourselves in the scene with Jesus, and we reflect on and re-live those moments with Him.
Importance of this Exercise
This prayer of the Stations of the Cross has the power to unite us to Our Savior and His Cross so intimately as to transform our lives. Let us walk, then, in the company of our Blessed Mother, as the early Christians did, striving for this beautiful union. The Cross was the most important redemptive work in the life of Christ – and thus should be the most important part of our spiritual life. No other devotion enables us more literally to obey Christ’s injunction to take up our cross and follow Him.
From the Forward of The Way of the Cross: a Treasury of Stations
“The Catholic passion for the Cross, a folly to the world and a stumbling block for Protestants, is perfectly reasonable. It is simply an enthusiastic response to Christ’s invitation: “Whosoever doth not carry his cross and come after Me, cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:27). The life of the Master is not some abstract image or distant ideal; it is a Way to follow, and there is no other. To reach heaven, His life must become ours, and we, in a sense, must become Him. “We must be true images of Christ or be eternally lost” (St. Louis de Montfort). And this conformity comes only through the Cross, our sole hope, our life, our salvation. “If we identify ourselves with the soul of the crucified, quite simply we no longer fear our weaknesses, for He will be our strength” (Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity)…. Besides the magnificent examples of the saints to encourage us and the profound richness of the Liturgy to inspire us, we have the beautiful devotion of the Stations of the Cross to aid us in this work. It is perfectly adapted to our human condition, setting before us as it does each stage of Christ’s journey to Calvary, and having us enter into His Passion with our senses, imagination, intellect, and will. Retracing this journey over and over again throughout our life, we cannot help but bear the cross more lovingly and joyfully.”
You can learn more about the Stations of the Cross on our website, but we hope that these brief thoughts will be a help to you and will encourage you to observe this important Catholic devotion during the Lenten season. In the words of St. Anthony, “Christians must lean on the Cross of Christ just as travelers lean on a staff when they begin a long journey. They must have the Passion of Christ deeply embedded in their minds and hearts, because only from it can they derive peace, grace, and truth.” So then, leaning on this staff, we will travel well through the precious time of Lent and be better able to celebrate with Our Lord a glorious Easter.
In Christ,
Your Carmelite Sisters
*New Incense*
Looking ahead to Easter, we have a few new incense scents to introduce to our website. We wanted to have an incense in honor of the Resurrection. He is Risen incense is the final result. This incense is a combination of myrrh, oud (a highly fragrant wood from the Middle East) and lily: From life to death through the cross. Through His death (symbolized by the myrrh, a scent associated with both priesthood and burial) on the cross (symbolized by the oud), and Resurrection (symbolized by the lily), Our Lord conquered death and Satan.
The second is also in honor of Our Lord. The inspiration was Psalm 45, a nuptial ode for the messianic king: “God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellow kings. With myrrh and aloes and cassia your robes are fragrant.” This incense is combination of myrrh and cassia (cinnamon), named Son of David since it reminded us of Our Lord’s Davidic ancestry.
The third new incense was the idea and special project of the artisan who handcrafts these sticks. She wanted a lily scent in honor of Our Lady’s purity of heart, and made an incense with pure and unmixed lily scent. Our Lady of the Lily sticks are also very appropriate for Easter, as the lily is the symbol not only of innocence and purity, but also of new life.
*Other Easter Items*
Our new white pearlescent candle, a pure white candle with a certain shimmer to it, is also perfect for Easter! We have many new styles of Easter cards, and we also recommend to you once again the Gregorian chant CDs for both Passiontide and Easter. We will be practicing and singing these chants ourselves before long!
