Stations of the Resurrection

The Stations of the Resurrection, also known by the Latin name Via Lucis (Way of Light), are a form of Christian devotion, encouraging meditation upon the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and some of the Resurrection appearances and other episodes recorded in the New Testament. The term may also be used as a name for a series of pictures or sculptures representing the various episodes, although these are nowhere near as common as those for the Stations of the Cross, depicting the stages of the Passion of Jesus. The concept was devised in 1988.

The Stations of the Resurrection complement the Stations of the Cross or Via Crucis (the term Via Lucis is intentionally reminiscent of this), a traditional Catholic devotion commemorating the Passion of Jesus. Unlike the traditional form of the Stations of the Cross—though in common with the revised form of that devotion introduced by Pope John Paul II on Good Friday 1991—all the Stations of the Resurrection are based on scripturally-recorded incidents contained in the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles.

As with the Stations of the Cross, the devotion takes no fixed form, but typically includes for each Station a reading from Scripture, a short meditation, contemplation, and a prayer. Where a series of pictures is used to aid the devotion, it takes the form of a procession, with movement from one Station to the next sometimes being accompanied by the singing of one or more verses of a hymn.