The Way of the Cross
WAY OF THE CROSS
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Opening Hymn
God of mercy and compassion
Look with pity upon me
Father, let me call Thee Father
‘T’ is Thy child returns to Thee
Jesus Lord I ask for mercy
Let me not implore in vain
All my sins, I now detest them,
Never will I sin again.
Lord Jesus, your cross is at the heart of our Christian vocation. Once again, we come to contemplate your cross and suffering. Grant us the gift of living more profoundly the mystery of our salvation. In meditating on your passion, we also see how you live and suffer even today in our brothers and sisters. Teach us, how to walk together with you in this world, so that we may come to know the power of your resurrection. Amen.
First Station
At the cross Her station keeping
Stood the mournful Mother weeping
Close to Jesus to the last
Jesus is condemned to death
Leader: We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
All: Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
Leaving the house of Caiaphas, where he had been blasphemed, and the house of Herod, where he had been mocked, Jesus is dragged before Pilate, his back torn with scourges, his head crowned with thorns; and he, who on the last day will judge the living and the dead, is himself condemned to a disgraceful death.
Let us pray: It was for us that you suffered, O blessed Jesus; it was for our sins you were condemned to die. Lord, grant that we may detest them from the bottom of our hearts, and by this repentance obtain your mercy and pardon.
Leader: Have mercy on us, O Lord.
All: Have mercy on us.
Holy Mother,/ imprint on my heart/ the sacred wounds of the crucified Lord.
Second Station
Through Her heart His sorrow sharing
All his bitter anguish bearing
Now at length the sword has pass’d
Jesus carries the cross to Calvary
Leader: We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
All: Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
A heavy cross is laid upon the bruised shoulders of Jesus. He receives it with meekness, nay, with secret joy, for it is the instrument with which he is to redeem the world.
Let us pray: O Jesus, grant us, by virtue of your cross, to embrace with meekness and cheerful submission the difficulties of our state, and to be ever ready to take up our cross and follow you.
Leader: Have mercy on us, O Lord.
All: Have mercy on us.
Holy Mother,/ imprint on my heart/ the sacred wounds of the crucified Lord.
Third Station
O, how sad and sore distress’d
Was that mother highly blest
Of the sole begotten one
Jesus falls the first time
Leader: We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
All: Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
Bowed down under the weight of the cross, Jesus slowly sets forth, on the way to Calvary, amidst the mockeries and insults of the crowd. His agony in the garden has exhausted his body; he is sore with blows and wounds; his strength fails him; he falls to the ground under the cross.
Let us pray: O Jesus, who for our sins did bear the heavy burden of the cross and fell under its weight, may the thought of your sufferings make us watchful over ourselves, and save us from any grievous fall into sin.
Leader: Have mercy on us, O Lord.
All: Have mercy on us.
Holy Mother,/ imprint on my heart/ the sacred wounds of the crucified Lord.
Fourth Station
Christ above in torment hangs
She beneath beholds the pangs
Of her dying glorious Son
Jesus meets his mother
Leader: We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
All: Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
Picture to yourself this touching scene - the eyes of the mother and the son meet. What a meeting must that have been! What a sword of anguish must have pierced that mother’s heart! What must have been the compassion of the son for his holy mother!
Let us pray: O Jesus, by the compassion which you felt for your mother, have compassion on us, and give us a share in her intercession. O Mary, most afflicted Mother, intercede for us, that through the sufferings, of your Son we may be delivered from the wrath to come.
Leader: Have mercy on us, O Lord.
All: Have mercy on us.
Holy Mother,/ imprint on my heart/ the sacred wounds of the crucified Lord.
Fifth Station
Is there one who would not weep
Whelm’d in miseries so deep
Christ’s dear Mother to behold?
Simon the Cyrenean helps Jesus to carry the Cross
Leader: We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
All: Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
As the strength of Jesus fails, and he is unable to proceed, the executioners seize and compel Simon of Cyrene to carry his cross. The virtue of that cross changed the Cyrenean’s heart, and from a compulsory task it became a privilege and a joy.
Let us pray: O Lord Jesus, may it be our privilege also to bear your cross; may we
glory in nothing else; by it may the world be crucified unto us, and we unto the world; may we never shrink from sufferings, but rather rejoice if we should be counted worthy to suffer for your name’s sake.
Leader: Have mercy on us, O Lord.
All: Have mercy on us.
Holy Mother,/ imprint on my heart/ the sacred wounds of the crucified Lord.
Sixth Station
Can the human heart refrain
From partaking in her pain
In that Mother’s pain untold?
Veronica wipes the face of Jesus
Leader: We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
All: Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
As Jesus proceeds along the way, covered with sweat and blood, a woman, moved with compassion, makes her way through the crowd, and wipes his face with a handkerchief. As a reward of her piety, the impression of his sacred countenance is miraculously imprinted upon the handkerchief.
Let us pray: O Jesus, may the contemplation of your sufferings move us to the deepest compassion, make us hate our sins, and kindle in our hearts more fervent love of you. May your image be graven on our minds until we are transformed into your likeness.
Leader: Have mercy on us, O Lord.
All: Have mercy on us.
Holy Mother,/ imprint on my heart/ the sacred wounds of the crucified Lord.
Seventh Station
Bruised, derided, cursed, defiled
She beheld her tender Child
All the bloody scourges rent
Jesus falls the second time
Leader: We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
All: Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
Due to the pain of his wounds and the loss of blood increasing at every step of his way, again his health fails him, and Jesus falls to the ground a second time.
Let us pray: O Jesus, who fell a second time beneath the load of our sins and of your sufferings for our sins, how often have we grieved you by our repeated falls into sin! Lord, may we rather die than ever offend you again!
Leader: Have mercy on us, O Lord.
All: Have mercy on us.
Holy Mother,/ imprint on my heart/ the sacred wounds of the crucified Lord.
Eighth Station
For the sins of His own nation
Saw Him hang in desolation
Till His Spirit forth He sent
Jesus consoles the women of Jerusalem
Leader: We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
All: Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
At the sight of the sufferings of Jesus, some holy women in the crowd were so touched with sympathy that they openly bewailed and lamented him. Jesus knowing the things that would be fall Jerusalem because of its rejection of him, turned to them, and said: “Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for
yourselves and for your children.”
Let us pray: O Lord Jesus, we mourn, and will mourn both for you and for ourselves, for your sufferings and for our sins which caused them. Lord, teach us so to mourn that we may be comforted, and escape those dreadful judgement prepared for all who reject you in this life.
Leader: Have mercy on us, O Lord.
All: Have mercy on us.
Holy Mother,/ imprint on my heart/ the sacred wounds of the crucified Lord.
Ninth Station
O Thou Mother, fount of love
Touch my spirit from above
Make my hearty with Thine accord
Jesus falls the third time
Leader: We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
All: Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
Jesus has now arrived almost at the summit of Calvary; but before he reached the spot where he was to be crucified, his strength again fails him, and he falls the third time, to be again dragged up and goaded onward by the brutal soldiery.
Let us pray: O Lord Jesus, we entreat you, by the merits of this your third most painful fall, to pardon our frequent relapses and our long continuance in sin; and may the thought of these your sufferings make us hate our sins more and more.
Leader: Have mercy on us, O Lord.
All: Have mercy on us.
Holy Mother,/ imprint on my heart/ the sacred wounds of the crucified Lord.
Tenth Station
Make me feel as Thou has felt
Make my soul to glow and melt
With the love of Christ Our Lord
Jesus is stripped of his garments
Leader: We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
All: Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
Arrived at last at the place of sacrifice, they prepare to crucify him. The executioners stripped Jesus rudely. His garments adhered to his torn flesh are dragged off so roughly that the skin came off with them. The holiest of all stands exposed to the vulgar gaze of the rude and scoffing multitude.
Let us pray: O Lord Jesus, you endured this shame for our most shameful deeds. Strip us, we beseech you, of all false shame, conceit and pride, and make us to humble ourselves voluntarily in this life, that we may escape everlasting ignominy in the world to come.
Leader: Have mercy on us, O Lord.
All: Have mercy on us.
Holy Mother,/ imprint on my heart/ the sacred wounds of the crucified Lord.
Eleventh Station
Holy Mother pierce me through
In my heart each wound renew
Of my Saviour crucified
Jesus is nailed to the Cross
Leader: We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
All: Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
The soldiers pushed Jesus down onto the cross. They drove nails into his hands and feet, fixing them to the wood of the cross. The little blood he had, spurted out; there was no resistance. The soldiers then put the cross upright, and planted it into the ground for all the world to see.
Let us pray: O Jesus, nailed to the cross, fasten to it our hearts also, that they may be united to you until death shall strike us with its fatal blow, and with our last breath we shall yield up our souls to you.
Leader: Have mercy on us, O Lord.
All: Have mercy on us.
Holy Mother,/ imprint on my heart/ the sacred wounds of the crucified Lord.
Twelfth Station
Let me share with Thee His pain
Who for my sins was slain
Who for me in torment died
Jesus dies on the cross
Leader: We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
All: Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
For three hours Jesus has hung upon his transfixed hands; his blood has run in streams down his body and soaked the ground; and, in the midst of excruciating sufferings he has pardoned his murderers, promised the bliss of paradise to the good thief, and committed his blessed mother and beloved disciples to each other’s care. All is now consummated, and meekly bowing down his head he gives
up his spirit.
Let us pray: O Jesus, we devoutly embrace that honoured cross where on you loved us even unto death. In that death we place all our confidence. Hence forth let us live only for you; and in dying for you, let us die loving you, and in your sacred arms.
Leader: Have mercy on us, O Lord.
All: Have mercy on us.
Holy Mother,/ imprint on my heart/ the sacred wounds of the crucified Lord.
Thirteenth Station
Let me mingle tears with Thee
Mourning Him who mourned for me
All the days that I may live
Jesus is taken down from the cross
Leader: We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
All: Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world
The multitudes have left the heights of Calvary, and there remain only the beloved
disciple and the holy women, who, at the foot of the cross are striving to bring consolation to Christ’s afflicted mother. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus take down the body of her divine Son from the cross and lay it in her arms.
Let us pray: O Mary, Mother of God, your grief was boundless as an unfathomable ocean. Give us a share in your most holy sorrow for the suffering of your Son, and have compassion on our infirmities. Accept us as your children with the beloved disciple. Show yourself a mother unto us and intercede for us in our necessities.
Leader: Have mercy on us, O Lord.
All: Have mercy on us.
Holy Mother,/ imprint on my heart/ the sacred wounds of the crucified Lord.
Fourteenth Station
While my body here decays
May my soul thy goodness praise
Safe in paradise with thee
Jesus is laid in the sepulchre
Leader: We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
All: Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world
The disciples carried the body of Jesus to the tomb, anointed it and wrapped it up, and laid it in the tomb. They sadly closed the tomb and left. In the tomb remains the lifeless body until the hour of its glorious resurrection.
Let us pray: Lord, your burial in the tomb and your resurrection give us the hope that our lives are not to be perished in the grave but to rise again in your glory. Lord, by baptism we have been buried with you (Rom. 6,4); give us the grace to consider ourselves dead to sin and to live with you (Rom. 6, 8-11)
Leader: Have mercy on us, O Lord.
All: Have mercy on us.
Holy Mother,/ imprint on my heart/ the sacred wounds of the crucified Lord.
Concluding Hymn
God of mercy and compassion
Look with pity upon me
Father, let me call Thee Father
‘Tis Thy child returns to Thee
Jesus Lord I ask for mercy
Let me not implore in vain
All my sins, I now detest them,
Never will I sin again.
Concluding Prayer
Heavenly Father, we have walked along with your Son, Jesus on his journey to Calvary. May this journey with our suffering Lord help us to remember also that Jesus is with us always in our journey through this life. Let this journey to Calvary cleanse us of our pride, egoism, and non-acceptance of ourselves and of those around us. Help us to realize that in pain and suffering you are close to us. Give us the strength and the courage to bear all our sufferings and pain. We make this prayer through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Act of Contrition
God, our loving Father,/ I am exceedingly sorry/ for having offended you,/ because you are infinitely good/ and deserve all my love,/ and because sin displeases you. Through my sins/ I have defiled my soul,/ lost heaven/ and deserved the fire of hell. I humbly ask your pardon/ through the merits of Jesus Christ/ and I firmly resolve/ with the help of your divine grace/ to offend you no more,/ to do penance for my sins/ and to avoid the occasions of sin. Amen.
For the intentions of the Holy Father
1 Our Father, 1 Hail Mary; 1 Glory be