The Rosary and Stations of the Cross are important devotions of the Catholic Faith.

The Rosary is the most common of Catholic devotional prayers. The term derives from the Latin rosarium [rose garden], which by the fourteenth century had come to mean a collection of devotional texts. The Rosary as we know it received its present form
in the sixteenth century. 

On the other hand, its roots extend into the distant past. The custom of using knotted strings as a device for keeping count of prayers is found in many religious traditions. Christians also used such means to help in the continuous repetition of biblical
passages or other text. By the eleventh century, the custom of saying 150 Our Fathers as a substitute for the psalms was widespread among the devout laity. This "poor person's breviary" was often was divided, as was the Psalter, into three sets of
fifty; the strings of beads used to count them were called "paternosters" [Our Fathers].

In the twelfth century, as Marian piety increased, the Angelic Salutation from Luke's Gospel was added to these, and soon the words of Elizabeth at Mary's Visitation as well. The development of a "rosary" consisting primarily of Hail Mary's took place.
The friars of the Dominican Order did the most to make it a general, popular prayer by propagating it through their preaching and the foundation of rosary confraternities, as well as by introducing a number of simplifications that standardized the prayer in
its present form. Because of its practical simplicity and warmth it remains a widely popular prayer.

The rosary is a longer prayer, composed of the prayers given below. While saying them we meditate on events in the lives of Mary and Christ, mysteries of our redemption. 

Where did the Stations of the Cross come from? After Jesus died and rose from the dead, many people reflected upon his passion and death. They began to make visits to Jerusalem and walk in Jesus' footsteps.  The street Jesus walked is still called Via Dolorosa, the way of pain. People would stop along the way and remember what had happened to Jesus. It is likely that they marked the places for those who came after
them to follow as well. These people became known as "pilgrims."

As Christianity spread throughout the know world, distance made it nearly impossible for people to make the trip to Jerusalem. That didn't stop their need to know and remember. By the twelfth century the fervor of the Crusades and a heightened devotion to the Passion of Jesus crated a demand in Europe for representations
of the last events in Jesus' life.

When the Franciscans took over the custody of the shrines in the Holy Land in 1342, they saw it as their mission to encourage devotion to these places. In western Europe a series of shrines erected to help the faithful remember Christ's passion became commonplace. They were erected outside Churches and monasteries and in other places as well. For many years there was a considerable variety in the number and
title of these "stations." The current number of fourteen first appeared in the Low Countries in the sixteenth century and became standard in the eighteenth century with a series of papal pronouncements.

The chief promoter of this devotion was the Franciscan Leonard of Port Maurice [died 1751], who set up more than five hundred sets of stations, the best know being the one in the Coliseum of Rome. Modern liturgists have emphasized that devotion to the Passion is incomplete without reference to the Resurrection and have thus fostered the addition of a "fifteenth station," the Resurrection of Jesus.

The Season of Lent is a natural time for this devotion. As the years passed, many Catholic Churches had the Stations of the Cross along the walls of their worship space. "Pilgrims" can come to Church any time, pray and move from station to station. We tell our children that the Stations of the Cross are like railroad stations because we stop at every one. The Church may have books available too, to help us reflect on these
Stations. Sometimes parishes schedule a time for people to gather an pray the stations together.

I hope you enjoy our Stations of the Cross.