My dear Little Flower,

Every year, as the desert winds of Lent begin to move through the Church, we are invited not merely to remember something that happened long ago — but to enter the saving Mystery of Christ. Lent is not nostalgia. It is participation. It is a pilgrimage. And one of the most profound pilgrimages the Catholic Church has given us is the Stations of the Cross.

The Stations of the Cross — also known as the Via Crucis or Way of the Cross — are a devotion that traces the final earthly journey of our Lord Jesus Christ: from His condemnation to His burial. But these are not simply pictures and images beautifully crafted unto wood or stone; the Way of the Cross is an encounter. In them, we walk with Jesus. We meet Mary. We stand beside John. We weep with the Women of Jerusalem. We feel the reluctant strength of Simon. We tremble with Peter. We linger with Mary Magdalene. The Stations are not something we watch. They are something we enter.

From the earliest centuries of Christianity, pilgrims traveled to the Holy Land — to Jerusalem — to walk the actual path our Lord walked along the Via Dolorosa, culminating at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built over the site of Calvary and the Tomb. By the Middle Ages, devotion to the Passion deepened. The Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans), entrusted with the care of the holy places, helped formalize this devotion so that those who could not travel to Jerusalem could spiritually walk the Way of the Cross in their own towns and parishes. Why? Because most Christians could never make the long and dangerous pilgrimage to the Holy Land. So the Church, in her maternal wisdom and care, brought Jerusalem to them. The Stations became a way of transcending geography. A way of transcending centuries. A way of stepping into the Eternal NOW of salvation.

The Stations are intense because love is intense. They confront us with the brutality of sin, the silence of suffering, the weakness of the human heart, the fidelity of Mary, the cost of redemption. But here is the deepest truth: When we pray “the Stations”, we are not spectators at a tragedy. We are participants in redemption.

The Passion of Christ is not locked in the year A.D. 33. It is present — sacramentally, spiritually, mystically — beyond space and time.

When we kneel at the Twelfth Station, we are standing at Calvary. When we follow Jesus beneath the Cross, we are offering our own burdens. When He falls, He carries our falls. When He dies, He dies for us. And when the tomb closes, it already trembles with Resurrection. The Stations teach us that suffering united to Christ is never meaningless. They teach us that love is stronger than violence. That obedience is stronger than pride. That mercy is stronger than judgment. That death is not the end.

Here at Little Flower Parish, we do not simply “schedule” the Stations. We gather. Every Friday of Lent: 6:00 PM – Soup Supper; 7:00 PM – Stations of the Cross. We begin in fellowship. We continue in pilgrimage.

This Friday, we will celebrate our Family Stations, hosted by our Religious Formation families. Our children, our parents, our catechists — together — will lead us along the Way (along with Pip the Rabbit of the LF Story Wagon). There is something profoundly beautiful when a child’s voice proclaims: “We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you…” Because the Cross is not just remembered. It is handed on.

Women at the Cross
Monday, March 9 – 7:00 PM
On Good Friday, as Jesus hung upon the cross, the women who loved Him stood near, watching, grieving, remembering. Among them were His mother Mary, Mary Magdalene, and Salome to name a few. Come and listen to what they might have said to Him standing beneath the cross.

The Culmination of Our Journey
Our Lenten prayer gatherings this year are offered for peace in the world — because the Cross is the only true answer to the violence of the human heart. Our journey will culminate in: Outdoor Walking Stations – 12:00 Noon (Good Friday). Walking the grounds of our parish, sanctifying the very soil beneath our feet.
Good Friday Service – April 13 at 3:00 PM. The hour of mercy. The hour the world was changed forever.

As we continue our Lenten pilgrimage, we will soon celebrate the Scrutinies with our elect, Gio, who is preparing to receive Baptism at the Easter Vigil. Last Sunday, he received the Rite of Election with us. The Scrutinies are ancient rites of the Church celebrated on the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Sundays of Lent. They are not examinations in the academic sense, but moments of profound spiritual intercession. Through special prayers called exorcisms, the Church asks Christ to search the heart, to strengthen what is good, to heal what is wounded, and to free what is bound by sin. For Gio personally, the Scrutinies are a decisive deepening of conversion — a stripping away of darkness and a strengthening in grace as he approaches the waters of new birth. For us as a parish, they are a mirror. As we pray over him, we are reminded that Lent is also our scrutiny — Christ searching us, purifying us, calling us again to the freedom of the children of God. When Gio stands before us, it is not only his journey we witness; it is the living work of Christ in His Church, drawing one more soul from ashes to fire, from death to life.

Friends, if Lent feels heavy… come. If the world feels uncertain… come. If your heart carries grief… come. If you are tired, distracted, burdened, restless… come. The Stations are not for the perfect. They are for the pilgrim. They are for the wounded. They are for the one who knows they need mercy.

Walk with Jesus.  Walk with Mary. Walk with one another. Because at the end of this Way — beyond the Cross — stands an empty tomb. And that empty tomb means that nothing you carry is wasted.


Your parish priest,
Fr JC Merino