P. Placido Lugano, osb, “The sacred Roman stations in Lent and the octave of Easter”, Sodalitium Book Center, pages. 118, euro 10,00.

1. The sacred time of Lent, in the current discipline of the Church and according to the spirit of its liturgy, it is a time of retreat that every Christian must spend in solitude in union with the divine Redeemer Jesus Christ, attending to penance and mortification, especially in the form of fasting, and to all the exercises of the spiritual life. It begins with Ash Wednesday, in which the Church invites her children to bow their heads under the austere sentence pronounced in heaven by God against rebellious man : Remember, oh man, that you are dust and to dust you will return; and ends with the Easter Vigil, in which the resurrection of the Redeemer comes to cheer the souls who have suffered the voluntary privations of penance. Lent prepares the believing people to commemorate the Passion of Jesus and to celebrate with Him the Hallelujah of victory.

2. Established, Lent, in memory of the forty days of fasting of the Redeemer, it is dedicated in a particular way to penance, to education and preaching. The liturgical prayers of Lent speak mainly of fasting and mortification; ma, after the fourth week they begin to mention the Passion : because the only mortification, made of penance and abstinence, it is a worthy preparation to celebrate the memory of the Passion of the Man-God with a purified soul, which characterizes the last fortnight of Lent. The Epistle and the Gospel contain the spiritual food for instruction and preaching; the prayers, begging for mercy and forgiveness, move to do penance for the sins committed. Various traces still remain in the Roman Missal of the ancient discipline relating to public penitents for their reconciliation and that for converts from paganism (catechumens), who were preparing to receive the grace of baptism at the Easter Vigil.

3. Fasting, once very strict on the weekdays of Lent, it is now greatly mitigated by the kindness of the Church. The law of fasting allows only one meal a day, but it does not prohibit taking a little food in the morning and in the evening, observing the approved local custom regarding the quality and quantity of foods; just as it does not prohibit the promiscuity of meat and fish in the same meal and the switching of the evening meal with lunch (Code of Canon Law, can. 1251, §§ 1-2). The law of abstinence prohibits the use of meat and meat broth, while allowing the use of eggs, of dairy products, butter and any condiment, including animal fat (can. 1250). They are included in the law of fasting (unless dispensation or legitimate impediment) all the faithful who have reached the age of twenty-one and have not reached the age of sixty; while all those who have completed the seventh year of age are bound by the law of abstinence (can. 1254, §§ 1-2).

4. The oldest rigid custom, about fasting, already inconstant in the time of Saint Augustine, it still found frequent application among the Roman people. Indeed in Rome, Lenten fasting was accompanied by the great divine offices, That, as a consequence, at this time they took on an austerely penitential character. The term station was taken from the ancient military language (station), transporting it to indicate the gathering of the faithful in a specific sacred place, where the Pope, assisted by his clergy, celebrated the divine mysteries. The barracks were attached to the military station (station), where there was vigilance even at night, with a guardhouse for daytime surveillance. And at the liturgical station, especially Lenten, the meaning of vigilance was accompanied from the beginning, of penance and prayer, done jointly. Tertullian found the comparison fair, because Christians are God's army. And Saint Ambrose, in comparing our fasts to the tasks of the Israelite people, riconosce che anche noi dobbiamo laboriosamente fare il cammino di quaranta giorni, and fortify ourselves with the devotion of fasting almost in as many fortresses: because for us the fasts that defend us from diabolical opposition are fortresses; and concludes by saying: « They're called stations, Why, locked up in them, let us repel the snares of our enemies ».

5. The "station" made every Lenten holiday a great religious demonstration. In Rome, the liturgy offers the same character of movement and the same local colour, who assumed the divine offices celebrated in Jerusalem, ordinary, from church to church. The stations were the expression of the unity of the liturgy, bringing together clergy and people, around the person of the Pontiff, who celebrated the divine mysteries and often preached. With pilgrimages to the various churches, the memories of the cult of the martyrs in individual places were kept alive. In this going of the liturgical service from one to another place, an analogy can be seen with the customs of Jerusalem, whence they derived, as in germ, many of the Roman liturgical prescriptions. At the time of Saint Gregory the Great, the station imported the procession with the litanies and the Mass. All the Roman people were summoned there, lay people and priests. The Pontiff himself, with his procession, he intervened. At the appointed time, they all gathered in an established church for the meeting (collection). Here the Pontiff recited the ad collectam prayer, that is, the prayer over the assembled people, he kept the procession moving, preceded by the stationary cross, to the singing of the litanies. Arrived at the church designated for the station, the Pontiff solemnly celebrated Mass, assisted by his deacons and subdeacons and by the priests of the various parishes (titles) of the city. Ordinarily, dopo la Messa, the location of the station for the following day was announced.

6. Here is the note from the Collections and Stations, where the stations of the oldest group of the Lenten liturgy are indicated in bold type (the most venerated and largest basilicas); the stations of the second group are indicated in italics, added towards the 5th century, between Saint Leo (+ 461) and Saint Gregory (+ 604) (the parish churches); and in Roman character, the station churches of the third group, added in the 8th century by Gregory II (+731) (the seven churches designated for Thursdays which had remained without liturgy until that time).

7. The pious processional pilgrimage walked along the streets of the city, making the air resound with the voice imploring the mercy and intercession of the Saints.. In the temple, the pleading voices gathered around the altar, on which the divine Redeemer, priest and victim, renewed, in the person of the Pontiff, the sacrifice of Calvary, and under which the relics of the martyrs lay venerated, unconquered witnesses of faith and Christian truth. Tea, the palms of the martyrs properly represent the triumphs of our prince Christ, and the martyrs of Christ, according to the beautiful Ambrosian expression, they are the true treasure of the Church.

One of the characteristics assumed by the stations was that of the triumph of the veneration of those who had given their lives for Christ: indeed the cult of the heroes of faith, of saints and martyrs, had a notable increase from station visits. In order to understand the liturgy of Lent well, it is necessary to also keep in mind the hagiographic reasons and not forget the topographical reasons. And the indications of the Missal, That, outside Rome, they may seem merely an archaeological vestige of customs from bygone times, they were in Rome, and I still am, a living reality. The basilicas and churches, destination of the station pilgrimage, they are always the trophies of the most venerated martyrs. The modern discipline is merely the continuation of the ancient one. «E’ it is good and useful to supplicately invoke the servants of God, reigning together with Christ, and venerate their relics and images: but before anything else, let all the faithful honor the most blessed Virgin Mary with filial devotion." (can. 1276). And the station visit brings the tribute of honor and the incense of filial love to the Mother of God in the golden basilicas of her glorification, and the scent of veneration of the relics of the Martyrs and Saints who embellish our Roman churches with immortality.

The clergy and the people, even in our times, ancient customs revive, although somewhat modified. High dignitaries of the Church and personalities of the laity, monks and ordinary people merge together in the same spirit of expiation, of penance and prayer. E, renewing these holy observances with devotion every year, they trust that they will please God both with body and mind.

source – http://www.centrostudifederici.org/novita-editoriale-le-stazione-quaresimali-romane/