Stations of the Cross - 2
WE BEGIN: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross every day and follow me. LK 9:23
I JESUS IS CONDEMNED TO DEATH
We adore you, O Christ, and we
praise you.
Because by your Holy Cross, you
have redeemed the world.
Jesus stands before us, an innocent yet condemned man. His very name means “God saves” and he himself tells us: “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” JN 3:17 To accomplish the work of redemption, Jesus willingly allows himself to be condemned to death on our behalf, the sinless for the sinful,
PRAYER: Lord, you stood alone, an innocent man sentenced to death, while I kneel before you, sinful but granted eternal life in the company of angels and saints. Help me to recall this when my life seems to get the best of me, when it weighs me down, and when I feel as though no one is on my side. On the other side of your trial, abandonment, and death awaited the Resurrection. Help me to grow in that light, knowing you are always at my side, and trusting that whatever happens, you are at work redeeming the moment.
Our Father . . . Hail Mary . . .
Glory be to the Father. . .
May the souls of the faithful
departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen
II JESUS ACCEPTS HIS CROSS
We
adore you, O Christ, and we praise you.
Because
by your Holy Cross, you have redeemed the world.
Each
one of us meets the Cross at one point or another: A layoff notice; divorce; a
car accident, cancer. Whether we
experience life-altering circumstances such as these, we cannot escape much of
life’s more chronic trials: Strained
relationships; the tedium of toil, uncertainty …. Whatever its form, the Cross
awaits us – not to punish or torture, but simply because ours is a broken world
in need of redemption. Jesus willingly accepts the Cross he received. Jesus
takes it all, and through his Cross, the world is redeemed. Likewise, our crosses become openings for
transformation, challenges to embrace, and opportunities for healing in ways
that go beyond our present circumstances.
PRAYER: Lord, for you all things are possible. Remove this cross – but only according to
your will. No matter what happens, help
me to patiently accept what I must bear; give me the courage to overcome what I
am able; and grant me the wisdom to unite my suffering with that of Christ’s,
so that I may become the person you’ve called me to be.
Our Father . . . Hail Mary . . .
Glory be to the Father. . .
May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen
III
JESUS FALLS FOR THE FIRST TIME
We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you.
Because
by your Holy Cross, you have redeemed the world.
When
someone falls, our first instinct is to help them up. If we look around us more intently, we’ll see
that many are falling one way or another – whether physically, emotionally, or
spiritually. It is here that the eyes of Christ meet ours. On his shoulders, quite literally, rests the
weight of the world, its people, and their sins. And it is heavy so he stumbles. His divine nature – ours by grace - is able
to get back up again. In him, with him,
and through him, we also are lifted off the ground. By this Cross, we are lifted back to our
feet, better equipped to recognize Christ in others and be Christ to them. With St. Paul, we can say: “I am now
rejoicing in my suffering for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what
is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the
church.” Col 1:24
PRAYER: I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined
to me and heard my cry. He drew me up
from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making
my steps secure. Happy are those who
make the Lord their trust. Psalm 40
Our Father . . . Hail Mary . . .
Glory be to the Father. . .
May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen
IV JESUS MEETS HIS MOTHER
We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you.
Because
by your Holy Cross, you have redeemed the world.
Who
can withstand the gaze of a mother – whether it’s a look of compassion,
commendation, or consternation? Along
the way of the Cross, Mary comes face to face with the fruit of her womb. As the new Eve - the mother of all the living
whose “yes” to God reverses the first Eve’s “no” - she has a role to play in
our redemption. Gazing at her son, her
hands clasped in prayer, she intercedes for each of us. With Mary’s
faithfulness, we are assured of grasping the mystery she pondered while on
earth – that what is broken will emerge whole and transformed from an empty
tomb at the dawn of eternal life.
PRAYER: Mary, you fix your gaze eternally on the
mysteries of Jesus, and in in so doing, you meet the entire Body of Christ
along the way. Ask him to help me do the
same, so that my every thought, word and action originate from, and is directed
toward, Jesus. As I bear my own cross in
this life, ask him to take hold of me, to lift my body, heart, and soul to
himself, so that I may be strengthened, so that through me, his love may
radiate to all souls.
Our Father . . . Hail Mary . . .
Glory be to the Father. . .
May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen
V SIMON
HELPS JESUS CARRY HIS CROSS
We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you.
Because by your Holy Cross, you have redeemed the world.
Simon
has his own problems. He tries to slip
through the crowd, pretending not to notice.
Suddenly, Providence touches his shoulder. “Why me?” he asks. Then his eyes meet those of Jesus, and their
hearts speak as one “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for I am gentle
and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
MT 11:29-30 Christ works in tandem with us, encourages us, and promises joy
beyond all knowing. When we are pressed
into service to bear a cross we didn’t seek, we must pray for strength and
recall that, in the end, the cross does not belong to us, but to Christ, who
bears it for all.
PRAYER: Lord, we don’t get to choose our crosses, and
it is difficult for us to see and accept the reasons they are thrust upon
us. This yoke – this cross – only makes
sense if it is not my own, if it is borne for another’s sake. Help me then, to
say yes, to carry the cross for another and for all others, so that I may find
rest myself.
Our Father . . . Hail Mary . . .
Glory be to the Father. . .
May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen
VI VERONICA
WIPES THE FACE OF JESUS
We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you.
Because by your Holy Cross, you have redeemed the world.
Our
deepest desire is for the God who made us, to see his face. “My soul thirsts
for God, for the living God. When shall
I come and behold the face of God?” PS
42:2. As he was led to his crucifixion,
Jesus’ face was slapped, spat upon, and mocked.
Even worse, it was ignored, as passers-by turned their faces and
pretended not to see. Veronica
demonstrates an example of tremendous compassion through one simple act. Approaching Jesus, she steps through the
surrounding cruelty and indifference, and with a cloth wipes the grime and
exhaustion from his face. She beholds
the face of God, and her heart rests in him whose image she bears.
PRAYER: Lord, my restless heart longs to see your
face. Help me to see it more clearly in
the faces of all your children. Assist
me in reaching out in compassion to the physically or spiritually hungry, the
thirsty, the stranger, the poor, the sick and the imprisoned. Grant me the courage to resist the
selfishness, indifference, and cruelty of human nature, and instead minister to
the weak, suffering, and needy – for as Jesus said, “Just as you did it to the
least of my brothers, you did it to me.”
MT 25:40
Our Father . . . Hail Mary . . .
Glory be to the Father. . .
May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen
VII
JESUS FALLS THE SECOND TIME
We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you.
Because by your Holy Cross, you have redeemed the world.
Once
again, Christ stumbles and falls to the ground.
Out of immense love for us, God lowers himself in Jesus to restore the
dignity that sin has stripped from humanity.
God stoops to us, allows himself to be broken and shared among us, so
that we who are so broken may together become the whole Christ, blessed and
shared with all. To stoop means to bend
down, to lower oneself, to willingly become small in order to provide another
dignity.
PRAYER: Lord, how often I stumble and fall, but you
are with me every step of the way to lift me up, to encourage and strengthen
me. Help me each day to truly realize
what you have done for me, so that your mercy and grace may inspire me to
encourage and strengthen others – not from a position of superiority, but from
your own self-sacrificing love.
Our Father . . . Hail Mary . . .
Glory be to the Father. . .
May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen
VIII
JESUS MEETS THE WOMEN OF JERUSALEM
We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you.
Because by your Holy Cross, you have redeemed the world.
Unable
to contain their sorrow and compassion for the suffering Jesus, a group of
women following him along the way to Calvary openly mourns for him. Jesus asks them to set their sights on the
eternal, to lament supernaturally the underlying reason for his necessary
suffering – the evil that humanity habitually falls into, and the good it often
neglect to do. “Weep instead”, Jesus
says, for those among you who refuse to turn and follow me”. LK 23:28 He
entrusts to these women – and to us – the apostolate of prayer. We must “weep” – that is, intercede – for the
entire Body of Christ, that through him we may all be brought to everlasting
life.
PRAYER: May those who sow in tears reap with shouts
of joy. Those who go out weeping,
bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their
sheaves. PS 126
Our Father . . . Hail Mary . . .
Glory be to the Father. . .
May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen
IX JESUS
FALLS THE THIRD TIME
We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you.
Because by your Holy Cross, you have redeemed the world.
Weary
and exhausted, Jesus collapses once again under the weight of humanity’s
pride. How often do we feel utterly
overwhelmed by our weakness? We make
sincere resolutions to change, but then fall once again. Typically, we do not stumble over new
obstacles, but over the same old ones that continually trip us up no matter how
hard we try to step around them. Human
failure in this life is to be expected.
The point is to recognize it, acknowledge it, look to Christ for further
strength and courage and move on. When
we are weak – and admit it – it is then that we are strong.
PRAYER: Lord, forgive me. My pride is my shame, but
your mercy is my peace. Strengthen me as
I shoulder my cross, and lift me up when I fall. Help me to forgive myself and move on. By your grace, may I always extend to others
the mercy you’ve granted me, so that one by one, little by little, step by
step, we may all keep to your way. You
are our strength and salvation.
Our Father . . . Hail Mary . . .
Glory be to the Father. . .
May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen
X JESUS
IS STRIPPED OF HIS GARMENTS
We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you.
Because by your Holy Cross, you have redeemed the world.
Jesus
is stripped of his garments in front of everyone. For our sake, he not only lets go of his
human life, but his very dignity as a person.
Little by little, from birth to death, we must inevitably learn to let
go of what we possess. “Those who want to
save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will
save it.” LK 9:24 We need to have an
interior disposition of holy detachment.
Detachment is about denying inordinate desires that would lead us astray
from the path of life God holds out for us.
With an honest interior examination, we can all compose lists of desires
that need to be stripped away from our lives.
PRAYER: “Naked I came
from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return.” Job 1:21 Grant me the grace
to embrace my absolute dependence on your divine providence. Be patient with me as I learn to detach
myself from any love which does not have you as its origin and end. Help me to be with those who also are in the
process of being stripped of what they hold dear. Grant us all the eternal visions to realize
that as we let go of the desires that clothe us, you stand ready to wrap us in
the garment of salvation and the robe of righteousness.
Our Father . . . Hail Mary . . .
Glory be to the Father. . .
May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen
XI
JESUS IS NAILED TO THE CROSS
We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you.
Because by your Holy Cross, you have redeemed the world.
Here,
perhaps more than anywhere else, we see God’s undeniable mercy and undying love
for each of every one of us. Though he is innocent, Jesus willingly stretches
out his Body upon a Cross reserved for the worst of criminals and
insurrectionists. On that Cross, in the
Body of Christ, hangs our every fault, fear, and tear. Every ounce of it is put to death with him
and transformed by the Resurrection three days later. God does what only God can: He makes the imperfect perfect, brings new
life from death, changes mourning into dancing.
PRAYER: If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord,
who could stand? But there is
forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered. For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
and with him is great power to redeem.
Our Father . . . Hail Mary . . . Glory be to the Father. . .
May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen
XII JESUS DIES ON THE CROSS
“Unless
a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain;
but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself. It is finished.” JN 12:24, 32; 19:30
PRAYER: “My Lord and my
God!” JN 20:28
Our Father . . . Hail Mary . . .
Glory be to the Father. . .
May the souls of the faithful
departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen
XIII JESUS
IS TAKEN DOWN FROM THE CROSS
We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you.
Because by your Holy Cross, you have redeemed the world.
Look
at Mary’s eyes as she cradles the body of her son, Jesus, after he has breathed
his last. Are you able to discern how
she pieces together the mysteries of Christ which she has pondered in her heart
from the very beginning? Now, beneath
the Cross, her son’s Body in her arms, the words of the boy Jesus resounds once
again in Mary’s heart, applicable to this moment: “Why are you searching for me? Do you not know that I must be in my Father’s
house?” LK 2:49 Hints of promise begin opening up.
PRAYER: Mary, Mother of the Church, you are the hope
of all Christian pilgrims on the way to the heavenly Jerusalem, where you and
your son Jesus, the Lamb of God, await us all.
Our Father . . . Hail Mary . . .
Glory be to the Father. . .
May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen
XIV JESUS IS LAID
IN THE TOMB
We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you.
Because by your Holy Cross, you have redeemed the world.
In
his Rule for monks, St. Benedict says that one must “keep death daily before
your eyes”. Someone – infinitely better, awaits us. The joy of this knowledge,
derived through faith, fills us with that holy desire needed to live radically
here and now. It is what makes us
Christian. We should feel sorrow,
because the life for which God created us was not meant to be that way. However, we should also embrace the joy of
knowing that in Christ, God has restored all things, and rightly ordered them.
PRAYER: Lord, I wait for the dawn of Resurrection
often in the midst of darkness and death. Life is a struggle sometimes for all
of us, and we are overwhelmed by uncertainty. Our hearts long for eternity for
you. However, by keeping death daily before our eyes, we are encouraged to
prepare rightly for that moment when we will see your face. Help us along the way – in faith, hope and
love - to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily and follow Christ, forever
trusting that if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will
certainly be united with him in a Resurrection like his.
Our Father . . . Hail Mary . . .
Glory be to the Father. . .
May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen
XV THE RESURRECTION
We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you.
Because by your Holy Cross, you have redeemed the world.
A
lifeless body in a tomb. Alone.
Defeated. Wrapped in burial cloths of
misery, fear, and failure. Mystery
awaits the morn. Thin light spreads over
a horizon unaware of what the earth cannot contain. The soil is soaked with divinity’s dew. The seed of humanity sheds its rotten garments. The wound within opens. A tender shoot appears. It emerges above the soil. A vibrant Body in
a garden. Planted in the house of the
Lord. Still bearing fruit when they are
old. Surrounding the Tree of Life. Singing Alleluia!
Our Father . . . Hail Mary . . .
Glory be to the Father. . .
May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen