People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 March 1895 — Catholic notes. [ARTICLE]

Catholic notes.

(Contributed.) During the holy season of Lent a sermon will be preached in St. Augustine’s church every evening at 7:45 on the devotion of the “Way of the Cross.” For those not having been present at the opening sermon the following sketch may prove interesting: When but a few centuries had elapsed since the precious blood of onr Redeemer was shed for us, pious Christians from all parts of the known world made pilgrimages to Jerusalem, there to visit the holy places, and to retrace the path rendered sacred to us by the footprints of our divine Savior, as he bent beneath the weight of his heavy cross. After some time pictures representing the different scenes in the Passion were erected at certain distances from each other along this “Way of the Cross,” and, before each, the faithful would pause for awhile in wrapt meditation upon the dolorous mystery which the picture so vividly brought to their minds. When, at a later period, the Saracens seized upon the holy land, and it was no longer possible to visit the places so hallowed by the sufferings of a loving Savior, the Christians, with the approbation of the Popes, erected station pictures at other places also, to afford the faithful a means of meditating on the Passion of Christ, and the first who did this w r ere the Franciscans.' The deep hold which the devotion had taken upon the hearts of all fervent Christians was soon manifested in the rapid and general diffusion, and there are very few' Catholic churches today, upon-the walls of which are not found pictures commemorative of the sorrowful “Way of the Cross.”