Stations of the Cross

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Station X
Jesus is stripped of His Garments, and offered Vinegar and Gall.

V. We adore You, O Lord Jesus Christ, and bless You.

R. Because by Thy holy Cross You have redeemed the world.

The Mystery
This Station represents how our Lord Jesus Christ ascended Mount Calvary, and was by His inhuman executioners stripped of His garments. The skin and congealed blood are torn off with them, and his wounds renewed.

Consider the confusion of the modest lamb, exposed naked to the contempt and derision of an insulting rabble. They present Him with vinegar and gall for a refreshment. Condemn here that delicacy of taste, that sensual indulgence, with which you flatter your sinful body. Pray here for the spirit of Christian mortification. Think how happy you would die if, stripped of the world and its attachments, you could expire covered with the blood and agony of Jesus.

Prayer
Suffering JESUS, I behold You stripped of Thy garments, thy old wounds renewed, and new ones added to the old. I behold You naked in the presence of thousands, exposed to the inclemency of the weather; cold, trembling from head to foot, insulted by the blasphemous derision of the spectators. Strip, O mangled Lamb of God, my heart of [attachments to]the world and its deceitful affections. Divest my soul of its habits of sensual indulgence. Let me [give up] cup of pleasure, that I may dash it with contempt from my lips, and through Christian mortification arrive at Thy never fading glory. Amen, Jesus.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory, etc.
Jesus Christ crucified, have mercy on us!

O Queen of angels, how thy heart did bleed
To see thy Son stripped naked here indeed,
And to the vile and cruel throng exposed,
Who round Him now in furious hatred closed. **
 
**http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/2005/via_crucis/img/stazione11.jpg

Station XI
Christ is nailed to the Cross.

V. We adore You, O Lord Jesus Christ, and bless You.

R. Because by Thy holy Cross You have redeemed the world.

The Mystery
THIS Station represents the place where Jesus Christ, in the presence of His afflicted mother, is stretched on the Cross, and nailed to it. How insufferable the torture - the nerves and sinews are rent by the nails.
Consider the exceeding desolation, the anguish of the tender Mother eyewitness of this inhuman punishment of her beloved Jesus. Generously resolve then to crucify your [evil] desires, and nail your sins to the wood of the Cross. Contemplate the suffering resignation of the Son of God to the will of his Father, [and compare this with your impatience] in trifling afflictions, in trivial disappointments. Purpose henceforth to embrace your cross with ready resignation to the will of God.

Prayer

PATIENT JESUS, meek Lamb of God, who promised: “When I shall be exalted from earth I will draw all things to myself,” attract my heart to You, and nail it to the Cross. I now renounce and detest my past impatience. Let me crucify my flesh with its concupiscence and vices. Burn [and cut away my wrong], but spare me for eternity. I throw myself into the arms of Thy mercy. Thy will be done in all things. Grant me resignation, grant me Thy love, I desire no more. Amen, JESUS.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory, etc.
Jesus Christ crucified, have mercy on us

You Christian hearts now join with Mary’s grief;
Heaven and earth behold deny relief;
Her heart was pierced with bitter grief to see
Her loving Jesus nailed unto a tree. **
 
http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/2006/via_crucis/img/stazione12.jpg

Station XII.
Christ is exalted on the Cross, and dies.

V. We adore You, O Lord Jesus Christ, and bless You.

R. Because by Thy holy Cross You have redeemed the world.

The Mystery
This Station represents the place where Jesus Christ was publicly exalted on the Cross between two robbers, who, for their enormous crimes, were executed with the innocent Lamb.

Consider here the confusion of your Savior, exposed naked to the profane view of a blasphemous multitude. Imagine yourself at the foot of the Cross. Behold that sacred body streaming blood from every part. Contemplate the divine countenance pale and languid, the heart throbbing in the last pangs of agony, the soul on the point of separation yet charity triumphs over His agony; His last prayers petition forgiveness for His enemies. " Father:, forgive them, for they know not what they do." His clemency is equally extended to the penitent thief: “This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise.” He recommends in His last moments His disconsolate Mother to His beloved St. John. He recommends His soul to His heavenly Father, and bowing down his us submissive, obedient head, resigns His spirit. Turn your eyes on the naked. bloody portrait of charity. Number his wounds. Wash them with tears of sympathizing love. Behold the arms extended to embrace you. Love of Jesus, you died to deliver us from eternal captivity.

Prayer

SUFFERING SON OF GOD, I now behold You in the last convulsive pangs of death – Thy veins opened, thy sinews torn, Thy hands and feet [bleeding]. I acknowledge, charitable Jesus, that my reiterated offenses have been Thy merciless executioners, the cause of your bitter sufferings and death. Yet God of mercy, look on my sinful soul, and bath it in Thy precious blood. Let me die to the vanity of the world, and renounce its false pleasures. You did pray, my Jesus for your enemies. I forgive mine. I embrace them in the depths of your charity. I bury my resentment in Thy wounds. Shelter me in the day of wrath in the sanctuary of Thy side. Let me live, let me die, in my crucified Jesus. Amen.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory, &c.
Jesus Christ crucified, have mercy on us.

Behold the streams of blood from every part,
Behold the sharp lance that pierced His Sacred heart;
On Calvary’s Mount behold him naked hang,
To suffer for our sins pain’s utmost pang.
 
http://198.62.75.5/www1/giotto/SSC-compianto-s.jpg

Station XIII.
Christ is taken down from the Cross.
V. We adore You, O Lord Jesus Christ, and bless You.

R. Because by Thy holy Cross You have redeemed the world.

The Mystery
THIS Station represents the place where Christ’s most sacred body was taken down from the Cross by Joseph and Nicodemus, and laid in the bosom of his weeping Mother.
Consider the sighs and tears of the Virgin Mother, with what pangs she embraced the bloody remains of her beloved Jesus. Here unite your tears with those of the disconsolate mother. Reflect that your Jesus would not descend from the Cross until He consummated the work of redemption and that at his departure from, as well as at His entrance into the world, He would be placed in the bosom of His beloved Mother. Hence learn constancy in your pious resolutions; cleave to the standard of the Cross. Consider with what purity that soul should be adorned which receives, in the blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist, Christ’s most sacred body and blood.

Prayer
At length, O Blessed Virgin, Mother of sorrow, you are permitted to embrace your beloved Son. But, alas, the fruit of your immaculate womb is mangled into one continuous wound. Yes, O Lord, the… fury of the [Jewish leaders] has at length triumphed yet we renew their barbarity, crucifying You by our sins, inflicting new wounds. Most afflicted mother of my redeemer, I ask you by the pains and torments thou suffered because of Salvation, to obtain for me, by thy powerful intercession pardon of my sins, and grace to weep with a Sympathizing feeling yours and thy Son’s afflictions. As often as I appear at the Holy Sacrifice of the mass, let me embrace You, my Jesus, in the bosom of my heart. May I worthily receive You as the sacred pledge of my salvation. Amen, JESUS.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory, etc.
Jesus Christ crucified, have mercy on us!

When from the Cross they took the blessed form,
His Mother cries, my Son, I am forlorn;
My child is dead, you virgins join with me,
Bewail in tears my love’s sad destiny.
 
http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/2004/via_crucis/img/stazione14.jpg

Station XIV.

Christ is Laid in the Holy Sepulcher

V. We adore You, 0 Lord Jesus Christ, and bless You.

R. Because by Thy holy Cross You have redeemed the world.

This Station represents Christ’s Sepulcher, where His blessed body was laid with piety and devotion.

Consider the emotions of the Virgin–her eyes streaming with tears, her bosom heaving with sighs. \hat melancholy, what wistful looks she cast on that monument where the treasure of her soul, her Jesus, her all, lay entombed. Here lament your want of contrition for your sins, and humbly adore your deceased Lord, who, poor even in death, is buried in another’s tomb. Blush at your dependence on the world, and the eager solicitude with which you labor to grasp its perishable advantages. Despise henceforth the world, lest you perish with it.

Prayer
Charitable Jesus, for my salvation You performed the painful Journey of the Cross. Let me press the footsteps marked by You, gracious Redeemer the paths which, through the thorns of life, conduct to the heavenly Jerusalem. Would that You were entombed in my heart, that being united to You, I might rise to a new life of grace, and persevere to the end. Grant me, in my last moments, to receive Thy precious Body, as the pledge of immortal life. Let my last words be Jesus and Mary, my last breath be united to Thy last breath on the Cross that with a lively faith, a firm hope, and ardent love, I may die with You and for You that I may reign with You for ever and ever. Amen, Jesus.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be…
Jesus Christ crucified, have mercy on us

You pious Christians, raise your voices, raise,
And join with me to sing your Savior’s praise,
Who shed his blood for us and died in pain,
To save our souls from hell’s eternal flame.
 
**http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/2004/via_crucis/img/stazione12.jpg

Conclusion.

COMPASSIONATE Jesus, behold with eyes of mercy this devotion I have endeavored to perform, in honor of Thy bitter passion and death, in order to obtain remission of my sins, and the pains incurred by them. Accept … it for the salvation of the living and the eternal repose of the faithful departed, particularly for those for whom I directed it. Do not, my Jesus, suffer the ineffable price of Thy blood to be fruitless, nor my miserable soul ransomed by it, to perish. The voice of Thy blood is louder for mercy than my crimes for vengeance. Have mercy then, O Lord! have mercy, and spare me for Thy mercy’s sake! Amen, Jesus.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

(The preceding meditations are from Rutter’s 1875 Stations of the Cross)

**
 
**This Stations is offered for the recovery of geezerbob.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Preparatory Prayer

My Lord, Jesus Christ, You have made this journey to die for me with unspeakable love; and I have so many times ungratefully abandoned You. But now I love You with all my heart; and, because I love You, I am sincerely sorry for ever having offended You. Pardon me, my God, and permit me to accompany You on this journey. You go to die for love of me; I want, my beloved Redeemer, to die for love of You. My Jesus, I will live and die always united to You.



The First Station:
Pilate Condemns Jesus to Die

V: Adoramus te, Christe, et benedicimus tibi.
R: Quia per sanctam Crucem tuam redemisti mundum.
Pilate said to them, “Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” All of them said, “Let him be crucified!” Then he asked, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Let him be crucified!” So he released Barabbas for them; and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified.
Click to expand...
Matthew 27:22-23, 26

MEDITATION

The Judge of the world, who will come again to judge us all, stands there, dishonoured and defenceless before the earthly judge. Pilate is not utterly evil. He knows that the condemned man is innocent, and he looks for a way to free him. But his heart is divided. And in the end he lets his own position, his own self-interest, prevail over what is right. Nor are the men who are shouting and demanding the death of Jesus utterly evil. Many of them, on the day of Pentecost, will feel “cut to the heart” (Acts 2:37), when Peter will say to them: “Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God… you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law” (Acts 2:22ff.). But at that moment they are caught up in the crowd. They are shouting because everyone else is shouting, and they are shouting the same thing that everyone else is shouting. And in this way, justice is trampled underfoot by weakness, cowardice and fear of the diktat of the ruling mindset. The quiet voice of conscience is drowned out by the cries of the crowd. Evil draws its power from indecision and concern for what other people think.

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.**
 
Second Station
Jesus Carries His Cross

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We adore Thee, O Christ, and we praise Thee.
Because by Thy holy Cross, Thou hast redeemed the world.

When our divine Redeemer beheld the Cross, He most willingly reached out to it with His bleeding arms. He embraced it lovingly, kissed it tenderly, took it on His bruised shoulders, and, exhausted as He was, He carried it joyfully.

O my Jesus, I can not be Thy friend and follower if I refuse to carry my cross. O beloved cross, I embrace Thee, I kiss Thee, I joyfully accept Thee from the hand of my God. Far be it from me to glory in anything save in the Cross of my Lord and Redeemer. By it the world shall be crucified to me, and I to the world, that I may be Thine forever.

Our Father, Who art in heaven hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Lord Jesus, crucified. Have mercy on us.

Standing Mother

O, how sad and sore distressed Was that Mother, highly blest, Of the sole begotten One!
 
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