Stations of the Cross: How to Pray All 14, With Meditations

How to Pray the Stations of the Cross

Pray the Stations by opening with a prayer of sorrow, moving through the fourteen stations with the same short pattern at each, and closing with prayer for the Pope's intentions. In church you walk from station to station. At home you sit or kneel and move through them in order.

1. Begin with the Sign of the Cross and an Act of Contrition, or the opening prayer below.
2. At each station, genuflect or bow and pray the versicle and response: "We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you. Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world."
3. Read the Scripture or the meditation for that station, and stay with the scene for a minute in silence.
4. Pray the short prayer, then an Our Father, a Hail Mary and a Glory Be.
5. Move to the next station, singing or saying a verse of the Stabat Mater if you like: "At the cross her station keeping, stood the mournful Mother weeping, close to Jesus to the last."
6. Close with a prayer, and an Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be for the Pope's intentions.

The Stations of the Cross I to VII, With Meditations

At each station, begin with the versicle and response, then read, meditate and pray.

V. We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you. R. Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

I. Jesus is condemned to death

Read Mark 15:6-15 or John 19:12-16.

Pilate knows Jesus is innocent and condemns him anyway, because the crowd is loud and his position is at stake. Jesus says nothing in his own defence. Think of the times you have gone along with a wrong because standing up would cost you.

Pray: Lord, give me the courage to do what is right when it costs me something.

II. Jesus takes up his cross

Read John 19:16-17.

Jesus accepts the cross he has not earned and carries it for sins he did not commit. He does not wait for it to be lighter. Name the cross you have been refusing: an illness, a difficult person, a duty you resent.

Pray: Jesus, help me pick up the cross you have given me today, without complaint.

III. Jesus falls the first time

Tradition; see Isaiah 53:4-6.

The Gospels do not record the falls, and the Church has always meditated on them, because a scourged man carrying a beam would fall. He gets up. Your first fall into an old sin does not have to be your last word.

Pray: Lord, when I fall, let me get up at once and keep walking with you.

IV. Jesus meets his mother

Tradition; see Luke 2:34-35.

Simeon told Mary a sword would pierce her soul, and here it does. She cannot stop what is happening. She can stay. Think of the people you love who are suffering, and whether you have stayed with them or looked away.

Pray: Mary, teach me to stand by those who suffer, as you stood by your Son.

V. Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the cross

Read Mark 15:21.

Simon was coming in from the country and was forced to carry the cross. Mark names his sons, Alexander and Rufus, which suggests the family became known to the first Christians. A burden you did not choose can become the way God reaches you.

Pray: Lord, when someone needs help carrying their load, let me be the one who steps in.

VI. Veronica wipes the face of Jesus

Tradition; see Isaiah 53:2-3.

Tradition says a woman pushed through the soldiers to wipe his face, and his image stayed on the cloth. One small act of mercy, done in public at some risk. Who around you needs a small kindness that nobody else will give?

Pray: Jesus, imprint your face on my heart, and let me see you in the faces of the poor.

VII. Jesus falls the second time

Tradition; see Psalm 22:6-7.

He falls again, weaker now. The second fall is harder than the first, because hope wears thin. Maybe you have confessed the same sin twice, ten times, a hundred. He falls with you and rises with you.

Pray: Lord, when I am tired of failing, do not let me give up on your mercy.

The Stations of the Cross VIII to XIV, With Meditations

V. We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you. R. Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

VIII. Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem

Read Luke 23:27-31.

The women weep for him, and he tells them to weep for themselves and their children. Even now he is thinking of others and warning them of what is coming. Tears for Jesus are good. Repentance for your own sins is better.

Pray: Lord, let my sorrow for your Passion turn into change in my own life.

IX. Jesus falls the third time

Tradition; see Lamentations 3:1-9.

He falls a third time within sight of Calvary. He gets up because the work is not finished. There is no fall so low that his grace cannot lift you, and no point at which it is too late to turn back.

Pray: Jesus, by your third fall, raise me from the sin I think I will never escape.

X. Jesus is stripped of his garments

Read John 19:23-24.

The soldiers take his clothes and gamble for them, fulfilling Psalm 22:18. He is left with nothing. Think of what you cling to: money, reputation, comfort, control. One day all of it will be taken from you too.

Pray: Lord, strip me of everything that keeps me from you.

XI. Jesus is nailed to the cross

Read Luke 23:33-34.

As the nails go in, he prays, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." Bring to mind the person you find hardest to forgive. He forgave the men driving the nails.

Pray: Father, I forgive the person I name now. Give me the grace to mean it.

XII. Jesus dies on the cross

Read John 19:25-30 or Luke 23:44-46.

He gives his mother to the beloved disciple, says "It is finished", and commends his spirit to the Father. Kneel here. This is the price of your sins and the measure of his love (John 15:13). Stay in silence for a moment.

Pray: Jesus, you died for me. Let me live for you, and die in your grace.

XIII. Jesus is taken down from the cross

Read John 19:38-40.

Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, two secret disciples, find their courage at last and ask for his body. Tradition pictures his body laid in his mother's arms. It is never too late to stop being a secret follower.

Pray: Mary, Mother of Sorrows, hold me close to your Son.

XIV. Jesus is laid in the tomb

Read Matthew 27:57-61 or John 19:41-42.

They lay him in a new tomb and roll a stone across the entrance. The women sit and watch. It looks like the end. Every Christian knows it is not. Bring to this tomb whatever in your life looks dead, and leave it with him.

Pray: Lord, I wait for your resurrection. Raise what is dead in me.

Some parishes add a fifteenth station, the Resurrection, so that the devotion ends at the empty tomb. It is a permitted custom. The traditional devotion ends at the burial, with the Church waiting in silence as the women did.

The Scriptural Way of the Cross

The Scriptural Way of the Cross is a form in which every station is taken directly from the Gospels. St. John Paul II prayed it at the Colosseum on Good Friday 1991. It starts in Gethsemane and leaves out the traditional stations that come from tradition only, such as the three falls and Veronica.

1. Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36-41)
2. Jesus is betrayed by Judas and arrested (Mark 14:43-46)
3. Jesus is condemned by the Sanhedrin (Luke 22:66-71)
4. Jesus is denied by Peter (Matthew 26:69-75)
5. Jesus is judged by Pilate (Mark 15:1-5, 15)
6. Jesus is scourged and crowned with thorns (John 19:1-3)
7. Jesus takes up his cross (John 19:6, 15-17)
8. Jesus is helped by Simon of Cyrene to carry his cross (Mark 15:21)
9. Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem (Luke 23:27-31)
10. Jesus is crucified (Luke 23:33-34)
11. Jesus promises his kingdom to the good thief (Luke 23:39-43)
12. Jesus speaks to his mother and the disciple (John 19:25-27)
13. Jesus dies on the cross (Luke 23:44-46)
14. Jesus is placed in the tomb (Matthew 27:57-60)

Both forms are approved and both are good. The traditional fourteen are on the walls of almost every Catholic church. The Scriptural Way suits Bible study groups and anyone praying with Protestant friends.

Where the Stations of the Cross Come From

The Stations of the Cross began with pilgrims in Jerusalem who retraced the path Jesus walked to Calvary, praying at each place. Our guide to the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem walks that street station by station.

• Pilgrims and Franciscans. The Franciscans, given custody of the holy places in the fourteenth century, guided pilgrims along the route. Returning pilgrims and friars built copies of the way in Europe so that people who could never travel could make the pilgrimage at home.
• Fourteen stations. The number and choice of stations varied for centuries. Pope Clement XII fixed the number at fourteen in 1731 and extended the indulgences to stations set up in churches everywhere.
• St. Leonard of Port Maurice, an eighteenth-century Franciscan preacher, erected the Way of the Cross in hundreds of places, including the Colosseum in Rome in 1750, honouring the martyrs who died there. See our page on the Colosseum and the Christian martyrs.
• St. Alphonsus Liguori wrote the meditations most parishes still used in the twentieth century.
• The Pope's Way of the Cross. Pope St. Paul VI revived the custom of the Pope leading the Stations at the Colosseum on Good Friday in 1964, and it is broadcast around the world each year.

The Plenary Indulgence for the Stations of the Cross

The Church grants a plenary indulgence to the faithful who devoutly make the Way of the Cross before stations that are lawfully erected. An indulgence is the remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins already forgiven (CCC 1471). Sin itself is forgiven in confession. An indulgence applies God's mercy, through the Church, to the healing that remains.

According to the Church's handbook of indulgences, the conditions are these:

• Pray before the fourteen stations erected in a church or other lawful place.
• Meditate on the Passion and death of the Lord. No particular vocal prayers are required, though most people use them.
• Move from one station to the next. When the Stations are prayed publicly and moving would be impractical, it is enough for the leader to move.
• Fulfil the usual conditions: sacramental confession, Holy Communion and prayer for the Pope's intentions, with a heart detached from all sin, even venial.

Those who are legitimately unable to go to a church can obtain the same indulgence by spending at least half an hour in devout reading and meditation on the Passion. You can offer the indulgence for yourself or for someone who has died. Our page of prayers for the dead explains how.

When to Pray the Stations, and With Whom

Pray the Stations on the Fridays of Lent, on Good Friday, and on any Friday of the year, the day Jesus died. Lent 2027 begins on Ash Wednesday, 10 February, and our guide to Lent 2027 has the full calendar. You do not need to wait for Lent.

• At home: sit with this page or a crucifix and go through the stations in order. Twenty minutes.
• With children: do three or four stations a night across the week, with one child reading the Scripture and another leading the prayer. Let the youngest hold the crucifix.
• In suffering: when you are sick, grieving or afraid, the Stations let you walk next to someone who has been there.
• For the dead: pray them on behalf of someone who has died, especially in November, the month of the holy souls.
• On a walk: many shrines and retreat houses have outdoor Stations along a path, and walking them is a pilgrimage in miniature.

Do Other Christians Pray the Stations?

The Stations of the Cross are a Catholic devotion, and many Anglicans and some Lutherans also pray them in Lent, often in the Scriptural form. The Orthodox do not use the fourteen stations. They keep the Passion in their own Holy Week services, above all the service of the Twelve Passion Gospels, read on the evening of Holy Thursday, where the whole account of the Passion is proclaimed.

Every Christian tradition agrees on the centre: "he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities" (Isaiah 53:5), and "Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures" (1 Corinthians 15:3). Walk with him this Friday.