The relatively new devotional practice in the United States seeks to bring people closer to God through the gift of the Eucharist.
When pilgrims were not able to travel to the Holy Land, Franciscans developed a devotional practice called the Stations of the Cross that would transport them in spirit to Jerusalem, so they could visit through prayer the holy sites where Jesus gave up his life for humanity.
Visual representations of the Stations of the Cross were eventually installed in nearly every Catholic Church, providing the faithful the opportunity to enter into Jesus' Passion and death, walking with him in his last agony.
Inspired by the Stations of the Cross, the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration in Hanceville, Alabama (formerly led by EWTN founder Mother Angelica), created a new devotional called the "Stations of the Eucharist." The stations are featured in an outdoor path that pilgrims can walk when visiting the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament and are meant to show visitors the beauty of God's gift of the Eucharist:
Stroll through our beautiful meditation garden which leads you through the Twelve Stations of the Holy Eucharist. The Eucharistic Stations were designed by the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration of Our Lady of the Angels Monastery. Starting with the Old Testament and ending in the New, each Station reveals God’s plan for the gift of the Eucharist across the centuries.
The 12 Stations of the Eucharist they developed start with Melchizedek and end with the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
New devotional edition
After having visited this pilgrimage site, Fr. Jonathan Meyer developed his own take on the devotion, as he explains to the National Catholic Register:
I was giving a retreat to priests of the Diocese of Lafayette in Indiana and was looking for content. I had prayed a version of the Stations of the Eucharist that the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration in Hanceville, Alabama, had devised, and I turned the stations into a talk. The priests responded positively; and then I decided, seeing the fruit of that, to turn the small talk into a larger one. I began changing some of the biblical passages and meditations and replacing them with ones I thought would make better sense for the people I was preaching to. The 12 stations turned into 14 as I removed some and replaced others.
Fr. Meyer then published a new devotional guide of the Stations of the Eucharist through Dynamic Catholic, where he seeks to bring others closer in love of God:
As you journey through these Stations, something wonderful will happen. You will come to know the vastness of God’s love for you. You will feel that love deep in your bones. You will become convinced that God is still writing the greatest love story of all time—and you are part of it.
The Stations of the Eucharist are a new devotion that may be helpful, showing how God prepared the world to receive him in the Eucharist and how we are invited to join in the banquet, the Wedding Feast of the Lamb, at every Mass.
