{"id":2631,"date":"2007-02-23T12:00:48","date_gmt":"2007-02-23T12:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2007\/02\/friday-stations\/"},"modified":"2014-03-05T13:08:54","modified_gmt":"2014-03-05T12:08:54","slug":"friday-stations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2007\/02\/friday-stations\/","title":{"rendered":"A Lenten Poem"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/04-02-07.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"04-02-07.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/04-02-07-thumb.jpg\" width=\"310\" height=\"245\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Friday Stations<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Red-covered they were passed out<br \/>\none by one like a Lenten communion<br \/>\ndrawn out of the cavernous tabernacle<br \/>\nof Mercy sleeves,<br \/>\nand distributed by a pale virginal hand,<br \/>\nmade whiter still by Friday\u2019s dusting of chalk.<br \/>\nLittle hands,<br \/>\nsweaty from an interval in the schoolyard,<br \/>\nfingered them,<br \/>\nthose fragile little books,<br \/>\na little faded and a little worn.<br \/>\nSo many children had turned them this way and that<br \/>\nkneeling and rising and and saying in voices that knelt and rose:<br \/>\n\u201cWe adore Thee, O Christ and we bless Thee,<br \/>\nbecause by Thy Holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.\u201d<br \/>\nThe candle flames flickered their way around the Church,<br \/>\nand between them a crucifix held high by one of the big lads,<br \/>\nand veiled these last two weeks in a purple sadness<br \/>\nlike the saints covered in their Passiontide shrouds.<br \/>\nThe priest surpliced in a lacy whiteness<br \/>\nwith a double stream of violet falling over his chest,<br \/>\nread Saint Alphonsus,<br \/>\nboring some, I fear,<br \/>\nand bringing one or two quiet boys to tears,<br \/>\nor at least to the pity that, like a flood,<br \/>\nrises in a child\u2019s heart<br \/>\nand then returns like the receding tide.<br \/>\nAt the Cross her station keeping,<br \/>\nthe Mother of Sorrows watched as<br \/>\nchildren, tired and not a little restless,<br \/>\nlearned the journey of suffering love;<br \/>\nand, now and then, a few were compelled to look<br \/>\nat the Face fourteen times depicted<br \/>\nand feel something,<br \/>\njust something of her pain.<br \/>\nIn the hearts of a few<br \/>\n(there are always a few who listen)<br \/>\nthat Face engraved itself<br \/>\nso that the passing years<br \/>\nshould become a procession from one station to the next,<br \/>\nnot without falls in dust and in mud,<br \/>\nmore than three, I fear,<br \/>\nand not without thorns, blood, and tears.<br \/>\nThe little red book,<br \/>\nforgotten by most,<br \/>\nbecame for some a prophecy<br \/>\nand the prayers of its finger-worn pages<br \/>\nthe secret of joy.<br \/>\nM.D.K.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Friday Stations Red-covered they were passed out one by one like a Lenten communion drawn out of the cavernous tabernacle of Mercy sleeves, and distributed by a pale virginal hand, made whiter still by Friday\u2019s dusting of chalk. Little hands, sweaty from an interval in the schoolyard, fingered them, those fragile little books, a little <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lent-2007"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paVypq-Gr","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2631"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2631"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6309,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2631\/revisions\/6309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}