INTRODUCTION

 As Christians we are invited to pickup our cross every day and follow after Jesus. Initially this is not a pleasant thought.  Not a pleasant thought because when we think about the cross, we think of the cross Jesus had to carry to Calvary.  We know that such a cross, weighed down with the sins of the world, would be impossible for us to carry. Jesus, however, does not ask us to pick up His cross … but our cross … a cross that may be challenging but a cross that would not be as heavy as Christ’s cross.

The cross always involves suffering but a suffering can be a redemptive, spiritual suffering. The cross tells us that by Christ’s stripes … by Christ’s suffering … we are healed.  Our suffering, however, can also be redemptive. Suffering can help us put life in perspective. Suffering can help us realize that we do not have a lasting city for ourselves in this world. Suffering can soften our hold on this world … can help us to let go so that we can move into eternity.  Suffering can help make us compassionate and merciful as God is compassionate and merciful. Suffering can help make us aware of our vulnerability.

 The Stations of the Cross, as a devotion, can help us visualize part of what Jesus suffered to redeem us. The Stations of the Cross can serve as a model for us as to how we should react to the Way of the Cross

FIRST STATION

JESUS IS CONDEMNED TO DEATH

 It doesn’t seem fair. What did He ever do to deserve it? Chesterton said that if Christ would come back we would not crucify Him… we are much too civilized for that.  We would simply invite Him to dinner and make fun of everything He says.  How many carry crosses that they never asked for ?… condemned for their past … chastised for their present … despairing for their future? Crucified in the name of Christian righteousness or religious piety … condemned for their color … their race … their dialect or their belief … condemned because they were told that they were ugly, incapable, dumb or incompetent … condemned for their personal preference  … crucified for thieir personal limitations. Unfortunately, the condemnation is not to death but to life. A life of shame, anger and worthlessness that comes only because one is black, white, Jew, Gentile, gay, straight, rich, poor, productive, impaired, handicapped, able bodied, single, divorced, educated, ignorant.  The condemnation that is laid upon us all.  Some of us did not ask for it.  None of us deserve it.

\LET US PRAY. Lord, help me to recognize you not only in the saints and the martyrs and those we consider holy but help, me to see you in the innocence of the children, the wrinkles of the aged, the fears of the confused and the cries of the angry. Help me never to be the executor of the present who condemned you centuries ago on a cross and now uses mere words to condemn you today in the name of God, whoever we have made Him to be. JESUS IS CONDEMNED TO DEATH

SECOND STATION

JESUS TAKES UP HIS CROSS

How am I supposed to embrace a cross, when all encourage me to run away from it and get rid of it? Help me to have the wisdom to realize that the cross was not your choice – “but to carry it was”.  Help me to realize that in order to remain faithful to the crosses I carry, it must be my choice.  Help me to see the cross of the alcoholic, to bear the cross of my own weaknesses of the flesh, to accept the brokenness of the cross of divorce, of separation and the shattered lives we encounter.  Help me to accept the cross of the unexpected death, the senseless violence of the crazy war. Help me to find you in the midst of the contradiction that only leads to confusion, when there is no consolation to be found and it leaves me alone and bitter.  Let the handicaps and the limitation of my life be a cross that leads not to problems, but to potential … not to obstacles, but to opportunities … therefore to know you, and the depth of your love.

LET US PRAY: Lord, give me the patience and the perseverance to bear the burdens that bring about my suffering and my confusion.  Give me the grace to accept myself, my temperament, my temptations, my limitations and to be able to accept the trials and the humiliation that come to me. In your passion, let me see possibilities; and in my cross, let me find courage. JESUS TAKES UP HIS CROSS

THIRD STATION

JESUS FALLS THE FIRST TIME

How could I?  And me of all people … I should be stronger than that.  I know people who do, and I don’t judge, but I, above all, should know better.  I recognize my cross … I face it … so how come I don’t have the grace and strength to overcome it … and not be a victim of my own human weakness?  It’s so hard … I pray so often, then I promise, and I fail so often.  It’s not like I don’t try … I do. I just don’t seem to really succeed… or get over it.  If I could conquer this, I’d be fine, I think … I hope … maybe.

LET US PRAY: Lord, in your compassion, you showed us how to overcome,-- not by being above falling, but by having the grace to get up and continue when we know that we rise only to face more of the same.  Do not let our weakness fill us with disgrace so as to turn us away from you. Rather let it show us your grace so that we may depend upon you, and know that in our weakness, we all the more are in need of you. JESUS FALLS THE FIRST TIME

FOURTH STATION

JESUS MEETS HIS AFFLICTED MOTHER

 I’m so sorry you had to see me this way.  It’s nothing you’ve done … it’s me. It is what I felt I had to do. I know that you do not understand. But knowing that I hurt you is a far greater burden to bear than the cross.  There are times you hurt those whom you love, not because you don’t care,but because you do.  It hurts to say “no”.  It is painful to love them so much and yet have to stop them. It is frightening to risk losing someone because you dare tell him or her the truth. One day I hope you’ll understand how much I love you, and why I did the things I had to do.  It is so hard to hurt those you love when you have to make them realize that just being right doesn’t justify everything you do.

LET US PRAY: Lord, give me the strength to watch those that I love suffer.  Prevent me from foolishly thinking that I can take away their suffering. Rather give me the courage to endure in order to make their suffering redemptive out of our pain and out of our shame. Our God creates virtues that never would have existed had we not first suffered. Help me, Lord, to trust, to let go.  But stay close to me, Lord. JESUS MEETS HIS AFFLICTED MOTHER

FIFTH STATION

SIMON OF CYRENE HELPS JESUS TO CARRY HIS CROSS

 Well thank God for Simon! We never really knew each other and weren’t really that close. He just happened to be there… and God knows  that I surely needed a friend at the time. The cross was not his to give, and therefore not his to take away. But he was there at the worst time, the darkest hour, right behind me, right beside me, to keep me going.  Thank God for the Simons, for if it had not been for him I would have never made it… or had it not been for him, I probably would have gone crazy? Simon is the one who when we get to the end of our rope teaches us how to tie a knot.  And then on the darkest of nights, Simon waits with us until the day breaks.  Simon shows us that when God closes a door, He opens a window. As unknown as he was, Simon was so crucial.  Help us never to refuse the Simons who just want to help.

LET US PRAY: Lord, help us always to recognize and welcome the Simons of Cyrene.  Remove the pride in us that says “Look whose talking.”  “ I can do it myself.” “ I don’t need your help.” “It’s your problem.” “You get help.” Let us realize that Simon was there for You, Lord, and you'll send him to us if only we will recognize him in our midst.  Help us to realize that God works as He wills, not only in the convenient and the familiar. SIMON OF CYRENE HELPS JESUS TO CARRY HIS CROSS

SIXTH STATION

VERONICA WIPES THE FACE OF JESUS

Veronica was to the crucifixion what the Drummer Boy was to the Nativity ... whatever she had, she gave.  She couldn’t carry … she couldn’t take away … but she could dry the tears with the only thing she had … her towel. She used what she had. I don’t know what I can do, but if you need me, call me. I’ll be glad to try … come by for a cup of coffee.  No I don’t have the answers, but I do have a towel to dry your eyes as you feel the pain of your searching.  Look at all the faces.  You feel they have so little to give.  In their eyes we see doubt … and in their hearts, we see an endless sea of guilt.  Veronica never said, “I’d love to but,” or “if only I were richer,” or “if only I were smarter,” or “if only I were healthier” or “if only I had more time”. Veronica never said, “Never”.

LET US PRAY: Lord, give me the wisdom never to apologize for being who I am.  Give me the willingness like Veronica and the widow’s mite to know that any gift from you can never be worthless. Fill our hearts with a generous spirit and our minds with a searching eye to find our way … to share our gratitude by the lives we live.  Help me to realize that real happiness comes not when you have everything you want,but when you appreciate everything you have.  When I become grateful, then I become aware of God in our midst. VERONICA WIPES THE FACE OF JESUS.

SEVENTH STATION

JESUS FALLS A SECOND TIME

 It gets so that I don’t know why I go to confession.  All I do is repeat the same thing.  I say and pray one thing and turn around and do just the opposite. I wonder if He gets tired with all my empty promises … and me,of all people … if my husband, wife, children really knew what I am, I wonder what they would think.  And how can I be so weak?  How can God forgive someone who is like me? It gets so at times that I just as soon give up and quit trying. Whom am I trying to kid anyway?  How can I say that I’ll never do it again? If I’m honest I have to say that I enjoyed it … that’s why I did it.  Then why do I feel so guilty? How come I never stop?

LET US PRAY: Father, help me to remember your great love for your Son,and help me to realize that your Son, and your Son alone, is above sin.  Open my eyes to realize that you are the only one who understands our weaknesses.  Fill us with the knowledge that you do not demand perfection, only persistence.  Give me the grace to join the human race not as my excuse, but as my consolation, and as my encouragement to get up again and again.  Help me to realize that defeat comes not just in the loss, but in the failure to try. JESUS FALLS A SECOND TIME

EIGHTH STATION

JESUS MEETS THE WOMEN OF JERUSALEM

 How can I explain this to those who love me so much …those who look up to me … trust me … respect me … and depend upon me so much?  There are so many people who know only one side of me … and it hurts so much when they see the cross,… the other side, and realize what I am really like. It’s almost, as if I am two people.  My head is filled with eyes heavenward, and my shoes are filled with clay feet. For God’s sake,if only I could become what I profess to be.  If I could preach what I practice and not try to practice what I preach … then I would not be such a hypocrite.  Then there would be no cross to hide … the cross of my anger … impatience … the weakness of my mind or body … when those who trust and count on my humanness help me not to be discouraged but determined.

LET US PRAY: Lord,there are so many faces for so many occasions … help me to define and face myself with the one heart … so that I can search for the face of God in every person I meet.  Give me the grace to give to all in need the strength and the courage that you have given to me.  Let the belief of those around me, encourage me to struggle, so that I may become what you have called me to be. JESUS MEETS THE WOMEN OF JERSUALEM

NINTH STATION

JESUS FALLS THE THIRD TIME

 That’s it.  I quit. I give up. Strike three, you’re out.  How can I go on and on. It’s too much.  I’m through.  I’m spent.  I’m tired of trying and getting no where. Every time I think it’s going to be better, it happens again.  I’m tired of hurting … and I am tired of being hurt. I reach out in tenderness to get slapped down in anger.  I take one step forward and two steps backward. I know you say not seven, but seventy times seven times; but this is a bit ridiculous … a bit much.  Sometimes it would be a lot easier if I just gave up.  I might be miserable … but I’d be honest. I don’t know what I’d be.

LET US PRAY: Lord, give me the strength to get up when my arms are too weary and my heart has lost all hope.  Let me get up fresh off the dust and get out of bed and face the new day with the hope that no I am not perfect - nor am I alone.  Let me realize that I can love and possibly get hurt. Give me the courage to go on.  Lord, help me to realize that failing to try, is giving up on you. JESUS FALLS THE THIRD TIME.

TENTH STATION

JESUS IS STRIPPED OF HIS GARMENTS

 The truth is finally out. I have nothing to hide anymore.  What they see is what they get. I have been stripped of the pride …the arrogance … the position that I lorded over them. There is no longer the title, the money, the office, the car, the reputation to make me into someone I am not.  Now that they know what I really am, how can anyone still love or care? I had to give it all up for the sake of following you!.  All I have is myself and my faith. Now everyone knows who and what I really am. I’m scared.  It’s awfully cold when you’re laid bare.

LET US PRAY: Lord, help me never to use the gifts you have given me to belittle others.  Enable me to give them something to live up to … not something to live down.  Let me not be afraid of what I am but humble … humble to know that as long as you are with me, I need not hide … I need to clothe myself with your love and your presence. In you, and in you alone, I find comfort and protection. JESUS IS STRIPPED OF HIS GARMENTS

ELEVENTH STATION

JESUS IS NAILED TO THE CROSS

It’s not bad enough that I had to suffer, be humiliated and embarrassed … there are those who still want to nail me to the wall … who insist on saying, “look whose talking” … who will not let the past die, but make sure that the sin is ever before me … and oh so visible. It seems as though they only feel good about themselves when the sins of others are in full view. They nailed me with their supposed innocence by saying, “they say” … “you know what I heard?”  Whoever “they” are … they are nameless and faceless. We nail the sins of others on the doors of the Church … or hand someone else the hammer and say “It’s none of my business but”. The nails are so sharp and the wounds are so deep.

LET US PRAY: Lord, remove the hammers of religious self-righteousness that enables us to blindly condemn with the justification that “well it’s true”. Help us not to continue this brutal act that places the sins of others above their heads and before us all forever. Give us the courage to be reconcilers-not crucifiers. Let my own sins remind me of the need of consolation, not condemnation: JESUS IS NAILED TO THE CROSS

TWELFTH STATION

JESUS DIES ON THE CROSS

 The cross looks as though its won … it’s over. The struggle is no more … the weight, the burden, the guilt, the fear of being discovered, the pain of keeping afloat that which has weighed me down for so long, is ended.  It will be no more. I have to let go.  It’s the cross, or me.  It’s the bottle, or my family.  It’s the discipline, or, you’re on your own.  It’s work together to be happy, or be miserable by yourself.  It’s the cross we have carried for so long.  Father, it is finished. It will have to die,or it will kill me. It may be heavy, but it’s familiar … and it’s hard to let go.

LET US PRAY: Lord, letting go is so hard … as painful as it was, I am afraid to be alone, or without.  If I let go, I may lose him forever … but if I don’t, what am I really holding on to? Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. Let me never be parted from you … but by your death and resurrection, bring me, Lord, to the joy of a new life. JESUS DIES ON THE CROSS

THIRTEENTH STATION

JESUS IS TAKED DOWN FROM THE CROSS

 Poor Mary.  Her only Son. Destined to be the savior of the world upon whom the rise and fall of many would come to rest.  And we had such great hopes for that boy. How afraid she must be.  And how painful to see someone you love so much … so lifeless …so unfair … and to be so alone.  How can you save someone from the death that had to come?  How can we spare youth from the mistakes of their innocence? How can we protect them,when they insist on the life that only brings in empty joys and broken promises?  It’s so hard to just be there and pick them up when they fall … but nothing I would have said or done could have changed them. If you don’t look, you’ll never touch.  If you don’t touch, you’ll never feel.  If you don’t feel, you’ll never cry.  And if you don’t cry, you’ll never heal.  But why does it have to be that way?

LET US PRAY: Lord, our God, help us to love,  and not count the cost. Let us love them enough to stop them, and, if not, let us love them even when they have gone too far.  Let our love be a decision, not an investment.  Help us to love even the unlovable, the ungrateful, and the unchangeable … and let our final act of love enable us to just be there, when all we can do is cradle them in our arms, and weep. JESUS IS TAKEN DOWN FROM THE CROSS

FOURTEENTH STATION

JESUS IS LAID IN THE TOMB

 How dark. How cold.  How alone.  The funeral is over and everyone is gone. The house is so big … so empty … and everywhere I look, I think of them. The decision is made. They know what the alternatives are. They have to choose, and I don’t know what they’re going to do. I don’t know if they will get help.  I don’t know if they will go for treatment.  Try as you might, there is no comfort for the unknown … and there is no consolation among the undecided. I have to trust that death was the right thing. And even though the tune brought me darkness and doubt, I have to trust and keep going … but it’s so hard … so cold … so dark.   And I am so alone.

LET US PRAY: Lord, you probe me and you know me … you know my every thought … and you knew me in my mother’s womb. Give me the wisdom not to search for miracles, but the grace to realize that to the depths of despair, or the height of the heavens, you are there to guide me and guard me. And you will bring me through the darkness of nights, to the dawn of a new day. JESUS IS LAID IN THE TOMB

FIFTEENTH STATION

THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS FROM THE DEAD

 He was born in the summer of his twenty-seventh year …coming home to a place he has never been before. I never thought I’d make it … not in spite of, but because I’m a better person. I’m not just alive … I have a new life … life I’d never known before … a life of sobriety … a life of honesty … a marriage that I always wanted … a life where I no longer take for granted those that I love.  It’s nice to know that I never have to stand at the grave and say, “If only” … a life I can choose to act … not just react …a life not of a victim, but of a believer. If only I can let go and let God … He will create virtues that never would have existed had we not first suffered. He left yesterday behind him … we might say he was born again … we might say that he found the key that opens every door.

LET US PRAY: Lord, through the suffering, crucifixion and death of your Son, you have brought us to the joy of the resurrection … a new and everlasting life. Help us never to despair, but to realize that death did not triumph. Lord, for your faithful people, out of the pain and crucifixion of death came a new and everlasting life.  Help us to hold on in the coldest, darkest, most painful hours, so that in the end, we will know that it will never end. THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS FROM THE DEAD

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