Over the course of my career as an Episcopal priest I have found myself discontented with the versions of the Stations of the Cross that I knew and used during Lent. Early on I found a set of Stations written by a friend, a Roman Catholic priest that felt “better” and used them for a time. Then they began to feel wrong so, and since I’d learned it was okay to write your own stations, I wrote a set, too. These were deeply influenced by my study of the work of Rene Girard and his system of mimetic theory, which offers a way to understand human violence and our need for scapegoats, all of which are embedded in the Way of the Cross. That set of Stations, once published on “PreachingPeace.com” (a site I built with my friend, Michael Hardin, but which has sadly gone the way of all things) was widely used, even as far away as the archdiocese of Sydney.
But after a number of years I realized that even that set of Stations left me hungry for something else, something more. So I wrote a second set of Stations that focused on repentance inspired by reflection on the Goodness of God, the Heart of the Father. They’ve never been as popular, but I prefer them for my own Lenten devotions.,
I offer both sets here for your consideration. They are available in PDF and Word in addition to the online format. It’s hard to provide something to use in PDF that’s likely to fit others’ printing/reading needs, so the Word documents are there so that you can reformat them as much as you need to. You may also excerpt or edit either or both of them to suit your own needs. I don’t ask for attribution, but if you do edit them, would you get in touch and let me know, maybe send me a copy of the way you used them?
Here are the links to the documents:
Stations of the Cross – Online Format
Stations of the Cross – (mimetic theory version) PDF
Stations of the Cross – (mimetic theory version) Docx
Stations of the Cross – (Heart of the Father) Online Format
Stations of the Cross – (Heart of the Father) PDF
Stations of the Cross – (Heart of the Father) Docx
I pray that you’ll find some blessing in one or the other!
Jeff
