Q In the (March 25) edition of The Catholic Commentator, you mentioned there were other ways to pray the Stations of the Cross. What are those alternatives?
A There are many ways to pray the Stations of the Cross besides attending the guided Stations of the Cross with your church parish on the Fridays of Lent.
You can visit your church at other times during the day and spend a few minutes prayerfully meditating on each station. You don’t even have to have a prayer book or prayer cards. The beautiful art work or plaque for each station will help guide your time of mental prayer. Your parish might also have a prayer garden with the Stations of the Cross that you could visit.
You can pray the Way of the Cross at home. Many Catholic prayer books include the stations, or you can use a separate Stations of the Cross booklet. Booklets can be obtained from one of your Catholic book stores.
Pray the stations virtually with a Via Dolorosa Experience DVD (a video following the footsteps of Jesus through Jerusalem on his way to be crucified). This DVD can be ordered from The Catholic Company. EWTN also has “A Scriptural Journey of the VIA Dolorosa” DVD. Your Catholic bookstore also might have similar DVDs. Via Dolorosa is Latin for “the grieving way.”
Pray the stations with an audio CD at home or while commuting.
Watch a movie. Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” is a good one.
Design and erect your own Stations of the Cross for your home or garden. Get creative!
Q Did Jesus have to die on the cross? Couldn’t he have saved us another way?
A I believe that God could have saved us in a different way. He could have simply forgiven our sins without sending his Son to suffer and die for us. But, I believe Jesus accepted the cross for several reasons:
God is just and fair. Justice demands that sin be atoned for by a sacrifice.
The Jews believed in sacrifice; they embraced sacrifice. It was an important part of their religion. So, Jesus offered his life for us as the ultimate sacrifice.
The terrible way that Jesus died shows us how much he loves us despite our sins. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states “God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (CCC 604 and Rom 5:8).
Jesus’ suffering and death shows us how serious sin is. Our God, who created us, became one of us and had to die for us to atone for our sins.
Jesus’ death on the cross fulfilled the Old Testament prophesies.
His death drew on the theme of the Jewish feast of the Passover. The Passover recalls when God led the Jewish nation out of the slavery of Egypt. Jesus’ death on the cross leads us out of the slavery of sin.
Yes, I believe that God could have saved us in a different way, but this was the best way.
Deacon Hooper is a deacon assistant at Immaculate Conception Church in Denham Springs. He can be reached at [email protected]@diobr.org.