This past Friday, Sister Grace Miller along with members of the House of Mercy and St. Josephs House of Hospitality, took to the sidewalks to honor the Catholic tradition of the 14 Stations of the Cross for Good Friday. The Stations of the Cross, also referred to as the Vio Dolorosa, is a narration of the final hours of the life of Jesus Christ. These stations are meant to serve as a reminder of Christ’s humble demeanor during his crucifixion process as he set aside any of his privileges as a deity so he could provide a path of salvation during his sacrifice.
There are various accepted versions of these stations and Christ’s last few hours of his life, one being biblical and the others being much more traditional tellings of the Christ’s final hours. Some of these stations are: ‘Jesus is Condemned to Death’ ‘Jesus Meets His Mother Mary’ and ‘Jesus Dies on the Cross’.
House of Mercy members started out over by High Falls and Factory Street at Kodak with the first station being ‘Jesus is Condemned to Death’. They stopped at Kodak, since it was a symbol of corporate wealth and power and once was the most powerful corporation in Rochester. By stopping there, it was an outright example of all the promises that global capitalism can’t keep. The purpose of this station is said to be that Jesus is still teaching the importance of being obedient to God’s Word no matter the situation.
The next station stopped underneath the underpass to downtown from High Falls and that one was to symbolize Jesus carrying the cross. Stopping at the underpass to symbolize places homeless people have to sleep as well as the large amount of undocumented immigrants that are persecuted by ICE.
“Jesus suffered for all of us so that we may live and be free,” said Sister Grace Miller. “And the way society is going today, many of our poor are not free.”
With these as examples for what the stations are, where they stopped and what they symbolized, all fourteen are listed below.
- Jesus is condemned to death.
- Jesus is given His cross.
- Jesus falls down for the first time.
- Jesus meets His mother Mary.
- Simon of Cyrene is forced to carry the cross.
- Veronica wipes blood off of Jesus’ face.
- Jesus falls down for the second time.
- Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem.
- Jesus falls down for the third time.
- Jesus is stripped of His clothing.
- Jesus is nailed to the cross – the Crucifixion.
- Jesus dies on the cross.
- Jesus’ body is removed from the cross – the Deposition or Lamentation.
- Jesus’ body is placed in the tomb
Thank you to our photography volunteer Julie Oldfield for the wonderful pictures.