For seven centuries Catholics have walked the same fourteen steps with Jesus on the road to Calvary. A guide to the devotion: how to pray it, all fourteen stations, and the saint who saw the face of God in the sixth one.
“We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you, because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.” — The traditional versicle of the Stations of the Cross
The Stations of the Cross — also called the Way of the Cross or, in Latin, the Via Crucis — are a Catholic devotion in which the faithful walk through fourteen scenes from Jesus’ Passion. The journey begins with his condemnation by Pontius Pilate and ends with his burial in the tomb. At each station the believer pauses to meditate on what happened, pray, and unite their own life with Christ’s suffering.
Most Catholic churches have the fourteen stations marked along the side walls of the nave — painted plaques, carvings, or sculptures, sometimes elaborate, sometimes simple. Walking from one to the next in a real church is the most ancient form of the devotion. But the Stations can also be prayed at home, alone, or in any setting where a person can pause and turn their attention through the fourteen scenes one at a time.
It is, in essence, a pilgrimage. The original Stations of the Cross are the actual streets of Jerusalem — the route along the Via Dolorosa from the Praetorium where Jesus was condemned to the place of his crucifixion at Calvary. Early Christian pilgrims walked that route from at least the fourth century. The fourteen stations as we know them are a way of making the same pilgrimage anywhere in the world.
The roots of the devotion go back to the earliest Christian centuries. Pilgrims who reached the Holy Land traced the route of Jesus’ Passion through the streets of Jerusalem, stopping at the places preserved in tradition. By the time the Crusades opened Jerusalem to large-scale Western pilgrimage, walking the Via Dolorosa had become a defining act of medieval piety.
For most Christians, however, traveling to Jerusalem was impossible. So the Church brought Jerusalem to them. From the late Middle Ages onward, churches across Europe began installing series of plaques or images that allowed worshipers to make the pilgrimage symbolically. The number and content of stations varied for centuries — some churches had seven stations, others twelve, others twenty.
The Franciscans, who had been entrusted with the care of the Christian holy places in Jerusalem in 1342, became the chief promoters of the devotion. The eighteenth-century Franciscan St. Leonard of Port Maurice is credited with installing more than 570 sets of stations in churches throughout Italy. In 1731, Pope Clement XII formally fixed the number at fourteen. The stations took the form we recognize today, and the indulgence attached to them was extended to anyone who walked them prayerfully — not only those who could reach Jerusalem.
Of the fourteen traditional stations, only nine come directly from the Gospels. The other five — the three falls of Jesus, his meeting with his Mother, and Veronica’s wiping of his face — come from ancient tradition rather than Scripture. The Catholic Church has always recognized them as legitimate objects of devotion because they help the believer enter more fully into the truth that Scripture does record: that Christ suffered, fell, was met by his mother along the way, and went to his death surrounded by both compassion and indifference.
There is no single “official” way to pray the Stations — dozens of versions exist, written by saints and prayer books over the centuries. What follows is the most common traditional form. Allow yourself twenty to forty minutes for the full devotion. Slower is better than faster.
Make the Sign of the Cross. Pray a brief opening prayer asking for the grace to walk with Christ in his Passion. The traditional opening is the Act of Contrition.
If you are praying in a church, walk to the first station. If you are praying at home or alone, simply turn your attention to it. Genuflect or bow.
Announce the name of the station (“The First Station: Jesus is condemned to death”). Pray the traditional versicle: “We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.” Respond: “Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.”
Read the Scripture passage or short reflection associated with the station. Take a moment in silence. Picture the scene. Let it sink in.
Pray one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and one Glory Be at each station. Some traditions include additional prayers; others use only one. The simpler version is fine.
Continue through all fourteen stations in the same pattern: announce, versicle, read, reflect, pray. Walk slowly. The point is meditation, not completion.
After the fourteenth station, pray for the intentions of the Holy Father (this is the traditional condition for the indulgence attached to the devotion). Conclude with a final Sign of the Cross. Some traditions add a fifteenth station of the Resurrection.
Each station is a single scene from the road to Calvary. Together they trace the entire Passion, from the judgment hall of Pilate to the silence of the tomb. What follows is a brief reflection for each station with the relevant Scripture.
Pilate, finding no fault in Jesus, hands him over to be crucified anyway. The crowd has spoken. The political calculation has been made. The innocent man is condemned.
“Pilate said to them, ‘What shall I do then with Jesus, who is called the Christ?’ They all said, ‘Let him be crucified.’” — Matthew 27:22
Stripped, beaten, and exhausted, Jesus accepts the cross laid on his shoulders. He does not refuse it. He does not protest. He receives it as a gift to be carried for us.
“And carrying his own cross, he went out to the place called the Place of the Skull.” — John 19:17
The weight is too much. Jesus falls. The Son of God, who flung the stars into space, presses his face into the dust of the road. He gets up, and walks on.
“Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.” — Isaiah 53:4
In the press of the crowd, Mary finds her Son. No words are recorded. There are none that could be enough. A mother sees her child being led to die. The sword foretold by Simeon at the Presentation now passes through her heart.
“And a sword will pierce your own soul too.” — Luke 2:35
A stranger from Cyrene is pulled out of the crowd by the soldiers and forced to carry the cross. Simon did not volunteer. He had not planned this morning to become part of the Passion. And yet his name is in the Gospels forever.
“And as they led him away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene… and laid on him the cross, to carry it behind Jesus.” — Luke 23:26
A woman steps forward from the crowd with a cloth. She wipes the face of Jesus — the face streaked with blood, sweat, and dust, the face most people would look away from. Tradition holds that the image of his face was miraculously imprinted on her veil.
This is the station that captured the heart of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. When she entered Carmel at fifteen she chose the religious name “Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face.” The Holy Face she meant was this one — the suffering, disfigured, despised face that Veronica wiped. Thérèse gave her life to console it.
“He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, no beauty that we should desire him… and as one from whom men hide their faces.” — Isaiah 53:2–3
Again the weight overcomes him. He falls a second time. The road is long, the crowd is jeering, the body is failing. He gets up again. He keeps walking.
“He was despised, and we esteemed him not.” — Isaiah 53:3
The women of the city weep for him. He turns to them — still under the weight of the cross — and tells them not to weep for him, but for themselves and for their children. Even now, he is more concerned with their suffering than with his own.
“Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.” — Luke 23:28
He falls again. The third fall. He is almost at the place of execution. The body has nothing left. And still, he gets up.
“Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief.” — Isaiah 53:10
The soldiers strip him. They divide his clothes among themselves and cast lots for his tunic. The last dignity is taken from him. The God of all creation stands naked before the men he came to save.
“They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” — Psalm 22:18
They drive the nails through his hands and his feet. He prays for the men who are doing it: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” He is offering, even now, the very pain they are inflicting on him.
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” — Luke 23:34
After three hours of agony, Jesus speaks his last words — “It is finished” — bows his head, and dies. The whole earth shakes. The veil of the Temple is torn from top to bottom. The centurion at the foot of the cross says: “Truly this man was the Son of God.”
“It is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” — John 19:30
Joseph of Arimathea asks Pilate for the body. They take Jesus down from the cross and lay him in his Mother’s arms. The image of Mary holding her dead Son — the Pietà — is one of the most enduring in Christian art.
“Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth.” — Matthew 27:59
They carry him to a new tomb cut out of the rock. They lay him there. They roll a great stone across the entrance. The followers go away in grief. It is Friday evening. The world believes the story is over.
“And he laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock.” — Matthew 27:60
Some traditions add a fifteenth station of the Resurrection. Pope John Paul II favored this addition, and it is now common in many parishes — a reminder that the cross does not have the last word.
Of all the saints in the Church’s history, none made the sixth station the center of her spirituality the way St. Thérèse of Lisieux did.
When Thérèse entered the Carmel of Lisieux at fifteen, she chose her religious name with care: “Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face.” Most people remember the first half. The Child Jesus is connected to her doctrine of spiritual childhood — the willingness to remain small and trust God like a small child trusts a parent. But the second half — the Holy Face — was the half she said was deeper. “It is this name above all,” she wrote, “which expresses my devotion.”
The Holy Face she meant is the face of the suffering Christ — the disfigured, blood-streaked face traditionally believed to have been imprinted on the cloth Veronica used at the sixth station. The story is from tradition, not Scripture, but the theology behind it is from Isaiah: “He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, no beauty that we should desire him… and as one from whom men hide their faces.”
This was the face Thérèse gave her life to console. She believed that most people, then as now, looked away from the suffering face of Christ — from anything ugly, anything frightening, anything that asked too much. She wanted to be one of the few who looked at it with love. Her devotion to the Holy Face was inseparable from her radical solidarity with sinners and the worst-off members of the human family. It shaped her decision to spend her life praying for priests in difficulty, criminals on death row, and the souls everyone else had given up on.
“His Face was as it were hidden… it is still hidden today, for who understands the tears of Jesus?… As for me, the most beautiful day of my life will be the one when I see the adorable Face of my Beloved unveiled.” — St. Thérèse of Lisieux
If you walk the Stations of the Cross with Thérèse in mind, the sixth station will not feel like just one of fourteen. It will feel like a meeting. The same hidden, suffering face that she gave her life to is the face that meets you at every Mass and that waits for you in every difficult moment of your day. “Offering it up” — the practice she made famous — is at root just this: it is showing Veronica’s love to the same Face she wiped, again and again, in every small suffering of the day. Read more on the Catholic practice of “offer it up”.
The Stations of the Cross can be prayed at any time of year, in any season, by any person, in any setting. There is no requirement to wait for Lent. But two times in the Church’s calendar are particularly traditional.
The most common time is the season of Lent — the forty days of preparation for Easter. Many parishes hold communal Stations of the Cross every Friday evening in Lent. On Good Friday, the day the Church commemorates Christ’s death, the Stations are celebrated in many parishes and at the great basilicas of Rome. The Pope traditionally leads a public Way of the Cross at the Colosseum.
Friday is the traditional weekly memorial of the Crucifixion — which is why Catholics historically abstained from meat on Fridays year-round. Many devout Catholics pray the Stations every Friday, not only during Lent. It is one of the simplest ways to keep the memory of the Passion alive in ordinary time.
And of course, anytime you can sit with the fourteen scenes for twenty minutes is a good time. The Stations are not a seasonal devotion that expires after Easter. They are a school of suffering and hope that the Church has been teaching for seven hundred years.
Little Way includes a guided Stations of the Cross with all fourteen stations, Scripture, traditional prayers, and reflections drawn from St. Thérèse’s devotion to the Holy Face. Pray it slowly, on your own time, anywhere. Free for everyone.
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The Stations of the Cross (also called the Way of the Cross or Via Crucis) are a Catholic devotion in which the faithful walk through fourteen scenes from Jesus’ Passion — from his condemnation by Pilate to his burial in the tomb. At each station the believer pauses to meditate, pray, and unite their own life with Christ’s suffering. The devotion has its origins in early Christian pilgrimages to the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem.
Begin with the Sign of the Cross and a brief opening prayer. At each station, announce the name and pray the versicle: “We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you. — Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.” Read the Scripture or reflection, take a moment of silent meditation, and pray an Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be. Move to the next station and repeat. Conclude with a prayer for the intentions of the Pope.
Most commonly on Fridays during Lent and on Good Friday. Many parishes hold communal Stations every Friday evening in Lent. But the devotion can be prayed any day of the year — there is no requirement to wait for Lent. Some Catholics pray it every Friday year-round, since Friday is the traditional weekly memorial of the Crucifixion.
(1) Jesus is condemned to death, (2) Jesus takes up his cross, (3) Jesus falls the first time, (4) Jesus meets his Mother, (5) Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the cross, (6) Veronica wipes the face of Jesus, (7) Jesus falls the second time, (8) Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem, (9) Jesus falls the third time, (10) Jesus is stripped of his garments, (11) Jesus is nailed to the cross, (12) Jesus dies on the cross, (13) Jesus is taken down from the cross, and (14) Jesus is laid in the tomb. Some traditions add a fifteenth station of the Resurrection.
Between twenty and forty minutes for the full devotion, depending on how slowly you meditate at each station. Like the rosary, slower is better than faster — the point is meditation, not completion.
Of the traditional fourteen, only nine come directly from the Gospels. The five that come from ancient tradition rather than Scripture are: the three falls of Jesus (stations 3, 7, and 9), Jesus’ meeting with his Mother (station 4), and Veronica wiping his face (station 6). The Catholic Church accepts these as legitimate objects of devotion because they help the believer enter more fully into the truth that Scripture does record.
When she entered the Carmel of Lisieux at fifteen, St. Thérèse chose the religious name “Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face.” The Holy Face refers to the suffering, disfigured face of Christ — specifically the face Veronica wiped at the sixth station, traditionally believed to have been imprinted on her veil. Thérèse’s devotion to the Holy Face became the heart of her spirituality and was inseparable from her doctrine of the Little Way.
Yes. The Catholic Church grants a plenary indulgence (under the usual conditions of confession, Communion, and prayer for the Pope’s intentions) for praying the Stations of the Cross devoutly. The indulgence can be obtained whether the Stations are prayed in a church before installed images or, in cases of impossibility, by meditating on the fourteen stations privately for a similar length of time.
Yes. Little Way includes a guided Stations of the Cross with all fourteen stations, Scripture, traditional prayers, and reflections drawn from St. Thérèse’s devotion to the Holy Face. The app also includes the morning offering, daily examen, the rosary, novenas, spiritual bouquets, and a global community of intercession. Free on iPhone and Android.