The Eighth Station:
My Jesus, I am amazed at Your compassion for others
in Your time of need. When I suffer, I have a tendency to think only of myself
but You forgot Yourself completely. When You saw the holy women weeping over
Your torments, You consoled them and taught them to look deeper into Your
Passion. You wanted them to understand that the real evil to cry over was the
rejection You suffered from the Chosen people - a people set apart from every
other nation, who refused to accept God's Son.
The Act of Redemption would go on and no one
would ever be able to take away Your dignity as Son of God, but the evil,
greed, jealousy and ambition in the hearts of those who should have recognized
You was the issue to grieve over. To be so close to God made man and miss Him
completely was the real crime.
My Jesus, I fear I do the same when I strain
gnats and then swallow camels - when I take out the splinter in my brother's
eye and forget the beam in my own. It is such a gift - this gift of faith. It
is such a sublime grace to possess Your own Spirit. Why haven't I advanced in
holiness of life? I miss the many disguises you take upon Yourself and see only
people, circumstances and human events, not the loving hand of the Father
guiding all things. Help all those who are discouraged, sick, lonely and old to
recognize Your Presence in their midst.
Amen
The Ninth Station:
Jesus Falls the Third Time - (Luke 22:28-32)
My Jesus, even with the help of Simon You fell a third
time. Were You telling me that there may be times in my life that I will fall
again and again despite the help of friends and loved ones? There are times
when the crosses You permit in my life are more than I can bear. It is as if
all the sufferings of a life time are suddenly compressed into the present
moment and it is more than I can stand.
Though it grieves my heart to see You so weak and
helpless, it is a comfort to my soul to know that you understand my sufferings
from Your own experience. Your love for me made You want to experience every
kind of pain just so I could have someone to look to for example and courage.
When I cry out from the depths of my soul,
"This suffering is more than I can bear," do You whisper, "Yes,
I understand"? When I am discouraged after many falls, do you say in my
innermost being, "Keep going, I know how hard it is to rise"?
There are many people who are sorely tried in
body and soul with alcohol and drug weaknesses who try and try and fall again
and again. Through the humiliation of this third fall, give them the courage
and perseverance to take up their cross and follow you.
Amen
The Tenth Station:
Jesus is Stripped of His Garments - (John 19:23-24)
It seems that every step to Calvary brought You fresh humiliation, my Jesus. How Your sensitive nature recoiled at being stripped before a crowd of people. You desired to leave this life as You entered it - completely detached from all the comforts of this world. You want me to know without a doubt that you loved me with an unselfish love. Your love for me caused You nothing but pain and sorrow. You gave everything and received nothing in return. Why do I find it so hard to be detached?
In your loving mind, dear Jesus, did You look up to the Father as You stood there on that windy hill, shivering from cold and shame and trembling from fear, and ask Him to have mercy on those who would violate their purity and make love a mockery? Did you ask forgiveness for those whose greed would make them lie, cheat and steal for a few pieces of cold silver?
Forgive us all, dear Jesus. Look upon the world with pity, for mankind has lost its way and the principles of this world make lust a fun game and luxury a necessity. Detachment has become merely another hardship of the poor and obedience the fault of the weak. Have mercy on us and grant the people of this day the courage to see and know themselves and the light to change.
Amen
The Eleventh Station:
It is hard to imagine a God being nailed to a
cross by His own creatures. It is even more difficult for my mind to understand
a love that permitted such a thing to happen! As those men drove heavy nails
into Your hands and feet, dear Jesus, did You offer the pain as reparation for
some particular human weakness and sin? Was the nail in Your right hand for
those who spend their lives in dissipation and boredom?
Was the nail in Your left hand in reparation for
all consecrated souls who live lukewarm lives? Were You stretching out Your
arms to show us how much You love us? As the feet that walked the hot, dusty
roads were nailed fast, did they cramp up in a deadly grip of pain to make
reparation for all those who so nimbly run the broad road of sin and
self-indulgence?
It seems, dear Jesus, Your love has held You
bound hand and foot as Your heart pleads for a return of love. You seem to
shout from the top of the hill "I love you - come to me - see, I am held
fast - I cannot hurt you - only you can hurt Me." How very hard is the
heart that can see such love and turn away. Is it not true I too have turned
away when I did not accept the Father's Will with love? Teach me to keep my
arms ever open to love, to forgive and to render service - willing to be hurt
rather than hurt, satisfied to love and not be loved in return..
Amen
The Twelfth Station:
Jesus Dies on the Cross -
God is dead! No wonder the earth quaked, the sun
hid itself, the dead rose and Mary stood by in horror. Your human body gave up
it's soul in death but Your Divinity, dear Jesus, continued to manifest its
power. All creation rebelled as the Word made Flesh departed from this world.
Man alone was too proud to see and too stubborn to acknowledge truth.
Redemption was accomplished! Man would never have
an excuse to forget how much You loved him. The thief on Your right saw
something he could not explain - he saw a man on a tree and knew He was God.
His need made him see his own guilt and Your innocence. The Promise of eternal
life made the remaining hours of his torture. endurable.
A common thief responded to Your love with deep
Faith, Hope, and Love. He saw more than his eyes envisioned - he felt a
Presence he could not explain and would not argue with. He was in need and
accepted the way God designed to help him.
Forgive our pride, dear Jesus as we spend hours
speculating, days arguing and often a lifetime in rejecting Your death, which
is a sublime mystery. Have pity on those whose intelligence leads them to pride
because they never feel the need to reach out to the Man of Sorrows for
consolation.
Amen
The Thirteenth Station:
Jesus is Taken Down From the Cross - (John 19:38-40)
My Jesus, it was with deep grief that Mary
finally took You into her arms and saw all the wounds sin had inflicted upon
You. Mary Magdalene looked upon Your dead Body with horror. Nicodemus, the man
so full of human respect, who came to You by night, suddenly received the
courage to help Joseph take you down from the Cross. You are once more
surrounded by only a few followers. When loneliness and failure cross my path,
let me think of this lonely moment and this total failure - failure in the eyes
of men. How wrong they were - how mistaken their concept of success! The
greatest act of love was given in desolation and the most successful mission
accomplished and finished when all seemed lost. Is this not true in my life,
dear Jesus? I judge my failures harshly. I demand perfection instead of
holiness. My idea of success is for all to end well - according to my liking.
Give to all men the grace to see that doing Your
Will is more important than success. If failure is permitted for my greater
good then teach me how to use it to my advantage. Let me say as You once said, that
to do the Will of the Father is my food. Let not the standards of this world
take possession of me or destroy the good You have set for me - to be Holy and
to accomplish the Father's Will with great love. Let me accept praise or blame,
success or failure with equal serenity.
Amen
The Fourteenth Station:
My Jesus, You were laid to rest in a
stranger's tomb. You were born with nothing of this world's goods and You died
detached from everything. When You came into the world, men slept and angels
sang and now as You leave it, Creation is silent and only a few weep. Both
events were clothed in obscurity. The majority of men live in such a way. Most
of us live and die knowing and known by only a few. Were You trying to tell us,
dear Jesus, how very important our lives are just because we are accomplishing
the Father's Will? Will we ever learn the lesson of humility that makes us
content with who we are, where we are and what we are?
Will our Faith ever be strong enough to see power in weakness and good in the sufferings of our lives? Will our Hope be trusting enough to rely on Your Providence even when we have nowhere to lay our head? Will our Love ever be strong enough not to take scandal in the cross?
My Jesus, hide my soul in Your heart as
You lie in the Sepulcher alone. Let my heart be as a fire to keep you warm. Let
my desire to know and love You be like a torch to light up the darkness. Let my
soul sing softly a hymn of repentant love as the hours pass and Your
Resurrection is at hand. Let me rejoice, dear Jesus, with all the Angels in a
hymn of praise and thanksgiving for so great a love- so great a God- so great a
day!
Amen
Closing Prayer
My Jesus, I have traveled Your Way of the cross. It seems so real and I feel so ashamed. I
complain of my sufferings and find obedience to the Father's
Will difficult. My Mind bogged down by the poverty, sickness, starvation,
greed and hatred in the world.
There are many innocent people who suffer so
unjustly. There are those born with physical and mental defects. Do
we understand that You continue to carry Your cross in the minds and
bodies of each uman being?
Help me to see the Father's Will in every
incident of my daily life. This is what You did - you saw the Father's
Will in Your persecutors, Your enemies and your pain.
You saw a beauty in the Cross and embraced it as
a desired treasure. My worldly mind is dulled by injustice and
suffering and I lose sight of the glory that is to come. Help me
to trust the Father and to realize that there is something great
behind the most insignificant suffering. There is Someone lifting my cross to
fit my shoulders - there is Divine Wisdom in all the petty annoyances that
irk my soul
every day.
Teach me the lessons contained in my Cross, the wisdom of its necessity, the beauty of its
variety and the fortitude that accompanies even the smallest
cross.
Mary, My Mother, obtain for me the grace to be Jesus to my neighbor and to see my neighbor in Jesus.
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