Jubilee Year of Mercy
Stations of the Cross
St Barnabas Cathedral
Meditations written by the Venerable Mary Potter
Prayers by Pope Benedict XVI
Reflection
Let us hasten to Gethsemane to prepare and pray for strength to stand bravely on Calvary, when Our Lord calls us to do so. "Father if it be possible let this chalice pass from me, nevertheless not my will, but thine be done." When the shadow of the Cross falls we will be brave, we will stand with the mother of sorrows, with the beloved disciple, with the Magdalen; then we will be more peaceful as the time of sorrow passes and we rise again with our Risen lord.
We offer up our thoughts over this period of Our Lord's life in honour of and in union with the sorrowful heart of our Mother Mary. We will strive to go hand in hand with her, heart to heart with her, step by step we will tread the way to Calvary.
The First Station: Jesus Is Codemned To Die
V/. Adoramus te, Christe, et benedicimus tibi.
R/. Quia per sancram crucem tuam redemisti mundum
V/. We adore you, O Christ, and we belss you.
R/. Because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
Jesus is Condemned to Die
The way of Jesus led to humiliation and shame. Each hour was loaded with its separate pain, to fill up the chalice his Father had given him to drink. He had been led to the hall of Pilate to be judged. Pilate knew full well he had no right to condemn the innocent, nor to punish the one who had done no wrong. Jesus submits to this injustice, He gave an example in this as in all else.
The holy one bids us learn from him, to be humble of heart to take up our Cross and follow him.
PRAYER
Lord, you were condemned to death because fear of what other people may think suppressed the voice of conscience. So too, throughout history, the innocent have always been maltreated, condemned and killed. How many times have we ourselves preferred success to the truth, our reputation to justice? Strengthen the quiet voice of our conscience, your own voice, in our lives. Look at me as you looked at Peter after his denial. Let your gaze penetrate our hearts and indicate the direction our lives must take. On the day of Pentecost you stirred the hearts of those who, on Good Friday, clamoured for your death, and you brought them to conversion. In this way you gave hope to all. Grant us, ever anew, the grace of conversion.
All:
Our Father………
STABAT Mater dolorosaiuxta Crucem lacrimosa,
dum pendebat Filius. / AT, the Cross her station keeping, stood the mournful Mother weeping, close to Jesus to the last.
The Second Station: Jesus Takes His Cross
V/. Adoramus te, Christe, et benedicimus tibi.
R/. Quia per sancram crucem tuam redemisti mundum
V/. We adore you, O Christ, and we belss you.
R/. Because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
Jesus Takes His Cross
The Cross is raised on the shoulders of Jesus. We follow and watch our Lord and those who surround him.
Did He not bear the heaviest part of what ever Cross you have? Is there a pain or suffering in this world that human beings ever had their brother Jesus had not before them. We will take courage, we will walk in the steps of our Cross, we will bear our Cross bravely. We may faint under it, fall under it, but one thing we will not do, by his grace supporting us, by his grace helping us, we will not throw it from us.
PRAYER
Lord, you willingly subjected yourself to mockery and scorn. Help us not to ally ourselves with those who look down on the weak and suffering. Help us to acknowledge your face in the lowly and the outcast. May we never lose heart when faced with the contempt of this world, which ridicules our obedience to your will. You carried your own Cross and you ask us to follow you on this path. Help us to take up the Cross, and not to shun it. May we never complain or become discouraged by life's trials. Help us to follow the path of love and, in submitting to its demands, to find true joy.
All: Our Father……….
Cuius animam gementem,contristatam et dolentem
pertransivit gladius. / Through her heart, His sorrow sharing,
all His bitter anguish bearing,
now at length the sword has passed.
The Third Station: Jesus Falls For The First Time
V/. Adoramus te, Christe, et benedicimus tibi.
R/. Quia per sancram crucem tuam redemisti mundum
V/. We adore you, O Christ, and we belss you.
R/. Because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
Jesus Falls for the First Time
Look upon your master prostrate on the ground. Review each pain, each ache, look long, let it not be a casual glance. Come and touch. His body is both clammy and burning with pain. Come and realise that this is our Jesus, and after having looked and loved and wept, burn with a desire to suffer something for him and with him.
We may fall under our Cross, but we will not fling it away, and if indeed we fall we will rise again by God’s power.
PRAYER
Lord Jesus, the weight of the cross made you fall to the ground. The weight of our sin, the weight of our pride, brought you down. But your fall is not a tragedy, or mere human weakness. You came to us when, in our pride, we were laid low. The arrogance that makes us think that we ourselves can create human beings has turned man into a kind of merchandise, to be bought and sold, or stored to provide parts for experimentation. In doing this, we hope to conquer death by our own efforts, yet in reality we are profoundly debasing human dignity. Lord help us; we have fallen. Help us to abandon our destructive pride and, by learning from your humility, to rise again.
All: Our Father……..
O quam tristis et afflictafuit illa benedicta,
mater Unigeniti! / O how sad and sore distressed
was that Mother, highly blest,
of the sole-begotten One.
The Fourth Station: Jesus Meets His Grieving Mother
V/. Adoramus te, Christe, et benedicimus tibi.
R/. Quia per sancram crucem tuam redemisti mundum
V/. We adore you, O Christ, and we belss you.
R/. Because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
Jesus Meets His Grieving Mother
To see those we love suffering, we must see Jesus meeting his mother. We ourselves need help when our suffering is not so much our own as the grief we feel seeing the suffering of others. Who does not know the suffering which a husband feels when he cannot provide the necessaries of life for his wife and children or when he watches the mother with her worn face growing white like the sick child she is tending. His own heart is wrung and his cry goes up to heaven pleading for help. It is pure pain but he can liken it to Jesus’ Cross and when Jesus carried his Cross and met his mother.
PRAYER
Holy Mary, Mother of the Lord, you remained faithful when the disciples fled. Just as you believed the angels incredible message that you would become the Mother of the Most High, so too you believed at the hour of his greatest abasement. In this way, at the hour of the Cross, at the hour of the world's darkest night, you became the Mother of all believers, the Mother of the Church. We beg you: teach us to believe, and grant that our faith may bear fruit in courageous service and be the sign of a love ever ready to share suffering and to offer assistance.
All: Hail Mary………..
Quae maerebat et dolebat,pia Mater, dum videbat
nati poenas inclyti. / Christ above in torment hangs,
she beneath beholds the pangs
of her dying glorious Son.
The Fifth Station: Simon Helps Jesus Carry His Cross
V/. Adoramus te, Christe, et benedicimus tibi.
R/. Quia per sancram crucem tuam redemisti mundum
V/. We adore you, O Christ, and we belss you.
R/. Because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
Simon Helps Jesus Carry His Cross
Scripture does not tell us that anything was offered to Jesus on his weary way to Calvary as it would be for most, when they had fallen from weakness and exhaustion. No, Jesus must rise and pursue his way. He must be goaded on. He cannot become inanimate and unconscious as people are when they fall. Therefore He must push on, therefore He must wearied and worn still walk on, but He may have someone to help him with the weight of the Cross. Consider we are helping Jesus bear his Cross and that we should be as deserters to let it go, to give him as it were the weight or have to be forced like Simon was to carry it.
PRAYER
Lord, you opened the eyes and heart of Simon of Cyrene, and you gave him, by his share in your Cross, the grace of faith. Help us to aid our neighbours in need, even when this interferes with our own plans and desires. Help us to realize that it is a grace to be able to share the cross of others and, in this way, know that we are walking with you along the way. Help us to appreciate with joy that, when we share in your suffering and the sufferings of this world, we become servants of salvation and are able to help build up your Body, the Church.
All: Our Father
Quis est homo qui non fleret,matrem Christi si videret
in tanto supplicio? / Is there one who would not weep,
whelmed in miseries so deep,
Christ's dear Mother to behold?
The Sixth Station: Vernoica Wipes the Face of Jesus
V/. Adoramus te, Christe, et benedicimus tibi.
R/. Quia per sancram crucem tuam redemisti mundum
V/. We adore you, O Christ, and we belss you.
R/. Because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus
He knows his mother is looking at him, He knows she is near. She sees the sacred face besmeared with tears and blood. She remembers the beauty of his sacred infancy: she would tenderly go and wipe again that face but it may not be. This consolation is not for her, but her heart expands with love. She sees Versonica approach without regard for anyone around, casting aside all human respect, wiping with her veil the face of Jesus.
How does Our Lord reward love shown to him? His reward to Vernoica the impression of his sacred face on her veil, is but an image of what He does to those who live him. His image is impressed upon their soulds and He lives in them and therefore greatly does his Father love them.
PRAYER
Lord, grant us restless hearts, hearts which seek your face. Keep us from the blindness of heart which sees only the surface of things. Give us the simplicity and purity which allow us to recognize your presence in the world. When we are not able to accomplish great things, grant us the courage which is born of humility and goodness. Impress your face on our hearts. May we encounter you along the way and show your image to the world.
All: Hail Mary……….
Quis non posset contristariChristi Matrem contemplari
dolentem cum Filio? / Can the human heart refrain
from partaking in her pain,
in that Mother's pain untold?
The Seventh Station: Jesus Falls the Second Time
V/. Adoramus te, Christe, et benedicimus tibi.
R/. Quia per sancram crucem tuam redemisti mundum
V/. We adore you, O Christ, and we belss you.
R/. Because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
Jesus Falls the Second Time
If we had fallen, prostrate on the ground with Jesus; if we had seen him in that moment when He allowed himself to bear this fearful pain and anguish of fear…..the most terrible pain there is in the world…we would learn to bear what must come to our fallen nature! We are fallen, whar wonder if we feel the native earth! We only wonder when God raises us from that stare to his own embraces showing us his beauty and the wonders of his ways and works. O Lord….we follow you step by step – we learn to love you more and more.
PRAYER
Lord Jesus Christ, you have borne all our burdens and you continue to carry us. Our weight has made you fall. Lift us up, for by ourselves we cannot rise from the dust. Free us from the bonds of lust. In place of a heart of stone, give us a heart of flesh, a heart capable of seeing. Lay low the power of ideologies, so that all may see that they are a web of lies. Do not let the wall of materialism become insurmountable. Make us aware of your presence. Keep us sober and vigilant, capable of resisting the forces of evil. Help us to recognize the spiritual and material needs of others, and to give them the help they need. Lift us up, so that we may lift others up. Give us hope at every moment of darkness, so that we may bring your hope to the world.
All: Our Father………….
Pro peccatis suae gentisvidit Iesum in tormentis,
et flagellis subditum. / Bruised, derided, cursed, defiled,
she beheld her tender Child
All with bloody scourges rent:
The Eighth Station: Jesus Speaks To The Women
V/. Adoramus te, Christe, et benedicimus tibi.
R/. Quia per sancram crucem tuam redemisti mundum
V/. We adore you, O Christ, and we belss you.
R/. Because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
Jesus Speaks to the Women
We are walking with you Jesus on the way to Calvary. We have looked around the crooked streets of Jerusalem on the motley crowd. We look around at the various faces with their various emotions, their different passions, their different motives. We look at the calm face of Jesus, calm in the midst of its passion of suffering, for those it loved. Beautiful face of Jesus, calm with tears of angusih forced from the eyes that looked with love and compassion on poor human nature. Let us view the faces of the people, let us view the face of Jesus. “My people! My People! What have I done to you?”