A way of remembering: the Stations of the Cross are a reminder to Christians of Jesus' sacrifice. (practicing catholic).

WHEN MY FATHER PASSED AWAY EIGHT YEARS ago, my biggest fear was that I would forget. I was afraid that I'd forget the memories of those Saturday mornings of my childhood, when my sisters and I would pack into our rickety station wagon to accompany him on errands--to the post office, his office, and, of course, McDonalds.

I feared I'd forget the sight of his worn slippers, the way he folded his newspaper when he was finished, and the bizarre dialects he used when telling a joke.

So I hang pictures of him around the house. I visit his old stomping grounds (bars and golf courses). I share old stories with my sisters--and call them every April 1 with a certain prank my dad always pulled on us.

I do these small rituals so I don't forget--which is the same reason we mark the anniversaries of tragedies like September 11 with solemn ceremonies and why Christians kneel at 14 stations along the Way of Sorrows.

In doing so, we keep a memory alive.

As Catholics, we celebrate the dying and rising of Christ every week in the Eucharist. But during the season of Lent, and particularly on Good Friday, we participate in special traditions, such as the Way of the Cross, when we recall the details of the Paschal Mystery.

Just as the "Tribute of Light"--two beams of light that illuminated the sky above Ground Zero in New York for two months--symbolized hope after devastation, the Stations of the Cross direct Christians on the road to Calvary, stopping at 14 points of anguish along the way, so that we can better appreciate the Resurrection of Easter.

According to legend, Mary was the first to walk the Way of Sorrows. As any grieving mother would, she returned to the last places she saw her son and remembered him. Stopping along the way--where he began carrying the cross, where he fell, where the nails penetrated his flesh, and where he ultimately died--she processed her grief and reflected on the awesome miracle of his life. The earliest Christians followed her example. By walking the dirt road to Calvary, by witnessing the holiest of places, they could better remember the sacrifice he endured for them.

As the desire to walk the Way of Calvary intensified in the succeeding centuries, so did the need to replicate the experience--an alternative pilgrimage, so to speak, for those who couldn't make the arduous journey. Even those who had visited the shrines in Jerusalem wanted representations of them closer to home so they could remember and honor the Passion of the Lord in some way.

Imitations of the more important shrines in Jerusalem sprang up in various places, like at the Monastery of San Stefano in Bologna. By the 14th century copies of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and other shrines--known as "Little Jerusalems"--could be found all over Europe.

By the 15th century, carvings and pictorial representations of the holy places in Jerusalem were arranged in many small churches and large religious institutions throughout Europe, providing the faithful everywhere access to the devotion.

In 1731, the number 14 and the sequence of the Stations of the Cross were set by Pope Clement XII.

NO MATTER HOW BIG, SMALL, ELABORATE, OR SIMPLE the carvings or pictorial representations that today hang in churches in virtually every country of the world, they direct our minds and souls to Jesus' 14 stopping points along the way to his death; regardless of how detailed or plain the stations are, they serve the same purpose: to help us remember, to keep the memory alive.

By THERESE J. BORCHARD, author of The Way of the Cross for Teenagers (Hi-Time, 1999) and co-editor with Michael Leach of I Like Being Catholic (Doubleday, 2000).