Stations of the Cross at Home
A Good Friday Liturgy
April 10, 2020
Rev. Kristen Yates
Stained Glass Windows/Stations of the Cross at Christ the Redeemer, Danvers MA
Before You Begin
What to Expect: In this “Liturgy at Home,” you will find prayers, Scripture readings, music, art, time for silence and reflection, and embodied practices to engage in alone or as a family.
Embodied Actions for this Service: Meditating on Stations of the Cross by Artist Ingrid Blixt at OpenJourney Either Online or Through Printed Stations Placed Around Your Homes
How to Prepare: Before you begin the liturgy, find a comfortable space for yourself and your family to worship together. If you have a cross, you may place that in your space of worship. If you have a printer, consider printing out the Stations of the Cross and placing them around your home or yard before you begin the liturgy. (I highly recommend this!) You can find the stations at this link: Stations of the Cross Images, Scriptures, and Prayers. (Note: the artist has generously made these images available to us this Holy Week; these images are for personal use only and not for redistribution or resale.)
Note: If you have trouble accessing this link to download the PDF, please email kristen@missioncincinnati.org and she’ll send you the PDF.
If you do not have a printer or your space makes it difficult to have Stations around it, access the Stations online through the link found below in the middle of the liturgy. (It will be easiest to scroll through them on a phone or tablet, but you can certainly access them through a computer, as well.). Also, you may want to write out the following call and response, which you’ll say at each station. “We adore you, Oh Christ, and we bless you. Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.”
How to Engage the Liturgy: Before you get started, you may want to determine who will read the introduction, section on the Stations of the Cross, and various instructions. You can decide if you want to pray the prayers all together or have one person do that. It’s up to you how to participate!
So what is Good Friday?
Good Friday is the day in the Christian Calendar when we remember our Lord’s death. If we are truly going to enter into the joy and celebration of Easter, we must first linger with Jesus as he prays in Gethsemane, is betrayed and condemned, journeys to the cross, and finally dies. Aside from Ash Wednesday, this is the most solemn day of the entire year.
If this is such a sorrowful occasion, why then might you ask, is this day called good? We call it Good Friday because we do know that Easter Sunday is around the corner. We do know that God was in control on the day of Jesus’ crucifixion.
As Lawrence Stookey says, “The crucifixion of Jesus was not some bad deal that God had to try to make the best of; it was a working out of divine intention with a view to the salvation of an otherwise doomed creation.”
So come join us as we ponder God’s way of working out the salvation of the world.
What are the Stations?
The Stations of the Cross, also known as the Way of Sorrows, is a series of images portraying Jesus Christ on the day of his crucifixion. The practice of meditating on the Stations originated in the late 4th century when Christian pilgrims from all around the world journeyed to Jerusalem to walk the path they believed Jesus walked on the way to his death. All along this path, called the Via Dolorosa, were stations that represented different incidents in Jesus last hours before his crucifixion – some of these incidents were recorded in the Scriptures and others were accepted early on in Christian tradition. Eventually, this practice was taken on by Christians who could not travel to Jerusalem but still wanted to walk in the way of Jesus’ sorrow. The traditional set of Stations includes 14 stations and is still practiced all around the world. The set of Stations you are about to engage is called the “Scriptural Stations of the Cross” and was introduced by Pope John Paul II in 1991. It is our hope that these Stations will help you embark on a pilgrimage of contemplation and prayer on this Good Friday.
“But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”
Liturgy
Call to Worship
Pray the following prayers:
“Today the carpenter’s hands are nailed to a cross,the King of kings is crowned with thorns and wears the purple robe of mockery. Today he sets us free, himself imprisoned on a tree. Today is God’s Friday. We come in worship.
O Christ, who forsook no one but was forsaken by the closest of friends, and who committed no crime yet was sentenced to a criminal’s death, we enter your presence in awe and adoration. On this day, centuries ago, you could have saved your life, but you refused to betray the purpose for which you had been born. You had come into the world to love God and neighbor as yourself, and when that love required you to shoulder a cross, you summoned the strength to bear it. Today, O Christ, as we sing and pray about the cross, teach us its meaning once again and help us to take up our cross and follow you. Amen.”
“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. ”
Entering God’s Presence
Take a moment to quiet your hearts and enter into God’s presence through an excerpt of “Mercy” by The Brilliance and images painted by Michael O’Brien that represent the 14 Scriptural Stations of the Cross set forth by Pope John Paul II in 1991. (Video put together by Ryan Flanigan of All Saints, Dallas). The words included in the song here, Kyrie Eleison, mean "Lord have mercy”.
Look for these images: 1) Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, 2) Jesus is betrayed by Judas and is arrested, 3) Jesus is condemned by the Sanhedrin, 4) Jesus is denied by Peter, 5) Jesus is judged by Pilot, 6) Jesus is scourged and crowned with thorns, 7) Jesus bears the cross, 8) Jesus is helped by Simon from Cyrene, 9) Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem, 10) Jesus is crucified, 11) Jesus promises his kingdom to the thief, 12). Jesus speaks to his mother and his disciple, 13) Jesus dies on the cross, and 14) Jesus is placed in the tomb.
What do you notice?
One of the Stations at Mission Santa Barbara.
Stations of the Cross - Following in Jesus’ Way of Sorrows
Now, it is time for you to engage the Stations of the Cross. These Stations have been so generously offered up to us for free by artist Ingrid Blixt.
If you have not already printed them off, you can access them online by pressing the button below.
Note: there are 14 stations, each with a brief prayer and one or two Scripture readings to accompany them. Once you have finished the Stations, return to your original worship space.
Here’s how to engage each Station:
1). Speak the name of this Station, i.e., “Station 1: Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.”
2). Read the Prayer and Scripture.
3). Respond to the reading with the following traditional call and response.
We adore you, Oh Christ, and we bless you.
Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.
4). Spend some time in silence, savoring each image and the Scripture readings, and reflecting on what the Holy Spirit is saying to you in this moment.
5). Lift up your petitions and intercessions to the Lord.
Email kristen@missioncincinnati.org if you have trouble accessing the Stations and need the PDF. Also, to buy a booklet of these stations from the artist, click here.
Silence, Confession, and Closing Prayer
After you have completed the Stations of the Cross, return to your original worship space and spend a few minutes in silent reflection, considering what you just experienced. What was this experience like, whether you walked the Stations or stayed in one place? How did God speak to you during this time? What images stuck out you (both in the Stations and the video above with the artwork by Michael O’Brien)?
When you are finished with your time of silence and reflection, if you are with a group, you can spend some time discussing your experience of the Stations with each other. Then move on to the following confession and prayer.
“Loving God, we know that you love us, so we confess that we have let you down. Every day we betray you, deny you, misunderstand you, crucify you.
We betray you when we are selfish or unkind. We deny you when we do not speak out for justice and truth. We misunderstand you when we justify our actions by misquoting your teaching. We are truly sorry and thank you for your love.
And we hold on this truth: for Jesus himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds we have been healed. (1 Peter 2:24)”
“We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you, because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world. If we have died with him, we shall also live with him; if we endure, we shall also reign with him. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you, because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.”
Closing Song
Conclude your worship by resting in God’s presence and listening to this meditation on Jesus’ death.
Lyrics to “Were You There?”
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Oh, it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?
Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?
Oh, it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?
Were you there when the stone was rolled away
Were you there when the stone was rolled away?
Oh, it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when the stone was rolled away?
Depart in Peace
For more devotional resources, go to www.rhythmsoftheway.org/practices