Friday, March 7, 2008

the stations: as i was taught

When I was young, I remember we would leave our classroom at some point during Lent and head over to the church, where we would do the stations of the cross.

I. Jesus is condemned to death
II. Jesus receives the cross
III. Jesus falls the first time
IV. Jesus meets His Mother
V. Simon of Cyrene carries the cross
VI. Veronica wipes Jesus' face with her veil
VII. Jesus falls the second time
VIII. Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem
IX. Jesus falls the third time
X. Jesus is stripped of His garments
XI. Crucifixion: Jesus is nailed to the cross
XII. Jesus dies on the cross
XIII. Jesus' body is removed from the cross
XIV. Jesus is laid in the tomb and covered in incense

The five ‘stations’ I highlighted are not mentioned anywhere in the bible. And yet they were taught to me as ‘gospel’ when I was a child. The Veronica one is most interesting, as there is not a single individual by that name in the bible. I am not sure how these stories came to be.

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