Via Lucis (The Way of the Light)

The Via Lucis or The Way of the Light, also known as the Stations of the Resurrection, is a scripturally-based pious Christian exercise that focuses on the meditation of the fourteen stations of the various appearances of Jesus from His Resurrection to His Ascension as recorded in the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. It is particularly suited for the Easter Season.

The end point of the lenten Via Crucis has been increasingly regarded as unsatisfactory in meditating the Paschal mystery, which according to Christian doctrine culminates in, and is incomplete without, the Resurrection (see 1Corinthians 15:17–20). So, it has been an outstanding instruction of the faith, since "per crucem ad lucem" [through the Cross (one comes) to the light]. Using the metaphor of a journey, the Via Lucis moves from the experience of suffering, which in God's plan is part of life, to the hope of arriving at man's true end: liberation, joy and peace which are essentially paschal values.

It is a potential stimulus for the restoration of a "culture of life" which is open to the hope and certitude offered by faith, in a society often characterized by a "culture of death", despair and nihilism.

In 1988, Fr. Sabino Palumbieri, Professor of Anthropology at the Salesian University in Rome, proposed the creation of a new set of stations, centered upon the Resurrection and the events following from it, so as to emphasize the positive, hopeful aspect of the Christian story which, though not absent from the Stations of the Cross, is obscured by their emphasis upon suffering. The first major public celebration of this devotion was in 1990, after which it gained greater currency.                ---------------------------------------------------------------

STATIONS

There is no definitive list of stations yet. However, there is general agreement that in order to emphasize the complementarity between the Via Crucis and the Via Lucis, there should be fourteen Stations of the Resurrection, as is traditionally the case with the Stations of the Cross.

In spite of the inconsistencies, there seems to be a convergence upon the following list:

1. Jesus is raised from the dead
2. The finding of the empty tomb
3. Mary Magdalene meets the risen Jesus
4. Jesus appears on the road to Emmaus
5. Jesus is known in the breaking of bread
6. Jesus appears to the disciples in Jerusalem
7. Jesus gives the disciples his peace and the power to forgive sins
8. Jesus strengthens the faith of Thomas
9. Jesus appears by the Sea of Tiberias
10. Jesus forgives Peter and commands him to feed his sheep
11. Jesus commissions the disciples upon the mountain
12. The Ascension of Jesus
13. Mary and the disciples wait in prayer
14. The Holy Spirit descends at Pentecost