First Station: Jesus is Condemned to Death
We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless Thee,
Because by Thy Holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.
Let us pray,
The judgment of death pronounced upon Thee, O Jesus, is a sentence full of iniquity: on the part of the Jews who demanded it, on the part of Pilate who pronounced it, and on the part of man, in general, whose sins are the only cause thereof. The righteous suffers instead of the guilty. Hell has lost its rights. The mystery of our justification is accomplished. May I, by a sincere and constant repentance, efficaciously participate therein.
Holy Mother, deign to impress upon my heart the wounds of my crucified Jesus.
We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless Thee,
because by Thy Holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.
Let us pray,
Although Jesus is already exhausted with fatigue and pain, and although His strength has abandoned Him, the inhumanity of His executioners takes a cruel pleasure in burdening Him with a heavy cross. The Divine Redeemer offers to His Holy Father this new suffering in order to atone more amply for our sins.
Holy Mother, deign to impress upon my heart the wounds of my crucified Jesus.
We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless Thee,
because by Thy Holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.
Let us pray,
My Saviour, Thou fallest under the weight of the cross or rather under the burden of my innumerable sins. O divine Jesus, the feebleness of Thy Holy Humanity, eloquently displays the acuteness of the pain which bruised it and the severity of Thy penance. May Thy Divine Grace aid me to walk worthily in Thy footsteps.
Holy Mother, deign to impress upon my heart the wounds of my crucified Jesus.
We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless Thee,
because by Thy Holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.
Let us pray,
The eyes of Jesus meet the eyes of Mary. Mary sees the face of her only and adored Son covered with spittle and blood . . . . Jesus sees the face of a tender and beloved Mother bathed in tears more bitter than all the bitterness of death. "My Mother, I leave you and I go to My death, willingly, to save ungrateful man."
"Go, my Son, leave Thy Mother, and may Thy death save them all!"
Oh, unspeakable martyrdom of maternal love and filial piety! . . . Eternity alone can fathom your extent and price. Henceforth shall I consider any sacrifice on earth too great when offered in expiation of my sins?
Holy Mother, deign to impress upon my heart the wounds of my crucified Jesus.
We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless Thee,
because by Thy Holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.
Let us pray,
If Simon, the Cyrenean, is forced to help Jesus to carry His Cross, it is because the malice of hell fears that His faintness may cause death before He reaches the summit of Golgotha, and that so, His enemies may be deprived of the frightful pleasure of seeing Him delivered up to the horrors of the last punishment.
O good Cyrenean! I wish to join you, to share your burden, and sympathize with His pains. I wish, above all, to unite myself to Him, to suffer with Him, through Him, and for Him. O Jesus! by this union it is not we who carry Thy Cross; it is Thou Who carriest ours and Who grantest us grace to change it into a tree of life.
Holy Mother, deign to impress upon my heart the wounds of my crucified Jesus.
We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless Thee,
because by Thy Holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.
Let us pray,
The insults and reproaches are always increasing. At each step the face of Jesus, which is adored by Angels, gives fresh evidence thereof; at this Veronica became so indignant, that notwithstanding the soldiers and the threatening cries of the crowd, she wished to make amends as well as she could by a public act of courageous piety. O my God! how long will human respect retain my homage captive? No, my Master, no more weakness, no more timidity, regarding Thy service and glory.
Holy Mother, deign to impress upon my heart the wounds of my crucified Jesus.
We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless Thee,
because by Thy Holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.
Let us pray,
The second fall of our Redeemer under the weight of the Cross should remind us of our falls and relapses into sin. Who can count them? O my soul, arise, hasten to return to God, and be careful not to follow thy own ways. He so often turns away from the true path will fall into the abyss and perish. Let us, then, watch over all our thoughts, all our words, and all our ways. Vigilance is the mother of safety.
Holy Mother, deign to impress upon my heart the wounds of my crucified Jesus.
We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless Thee,
because by Thy Holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.
Let us pray,
What a consolation for the daughters of Israel to hear, once more, the Voice of their Divine Saviour!
"Do not weep for me."
O Jesus! to allay our ills, you forget your own. This is a mystery calculated to animate our confidence, notwithstanding our falls. But in order that presumption of lawful confidence, let us listen to this threat:
"If the fresh wood is served thus, what will become of the dry?"
O my God! may an exact mixture of confidence and fear, henceforward, be the salutary refreshment for my soul.
Holy Mother, deign to impress upon my heart the wounds of my crucified Jesus.
We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless Thee,
because by Thy Holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.
Let us pray,
When Jesus fell the third time, He was almost on the summit of Calvary. Alas! what a striking picture for those who, after spending many years in piety and fidelity to their duties, lose their crown at the very moment they were about to receive it! What a subject for serious and profound reflection, and what a powerful motive for perseverance! Lord, may this virtue be mine! I beseech Thee for it by all the struggles the laborious paths of Calvary cost Thee.
Holy Mother, deign to impress upon my heart the wounds of my crucified Jesus.
We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless Thee,
because by Thy Holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.
Let us pray,
The Son of the Virgin Mary is stripped of His garments. "My God," said He to His Father by the mouth of the Prophet, "Thou Alone knowest the mystery of my shame and confusion."
It is necessary in order to render to the Supreme Majesty the glory of which the pride of man wished to rob Him; it is necessary in order to reinstate man himself in this glory which he has lost through sin. pride took away our garment of innocence, and with it, our dignity and our glory, and true glory will only return to us through profound humiliation and contempt of ourselves.
Holy Mother, deign to impress upon my heart the wounds of my crucified Jesus.
We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless Thee,
because by Thy Holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.
Let us pray,
O Jesus, my Divine Redeemer! the hour for Thy Crucifixion has struck. Adorable Victim, I see Thy feet and Thy hands nailed to the stake of Thy Sacrifice! Now the cruelty of the deicides triumphs; it enjoys the tortures of the sufferer, but the Divine Lamb does not give vent to one moan or to one sigh. His unalterable gentleness confounds the barbarity of His enemies. He prays for them, He asks for their forgiveness. He deems Himself happy in suffering for their salvation. Pains, nails, and thorns are His desire, His pleasure, His burning thirst. O Jesus! grant that we may comprehend this thirst and be refreshed by it.
Holy Mother, deign to impress upon my heart the wounds of my crucified Jesus.
We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless Thee,
because by Thy Holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.
Let us pray,
My Jesus, my Saviour, my Master, thou diest on the Cross! Oh! how beautiful is Thy death! Thou diest of love! All Thy thoughts, all Thy words, all Thy actions, even to Thy last sigh, are thoughts of love, words of love, actions of love. St. John, Thy well beloved disciple, reveals to us that God is love. O Jesus! Thou art our God, for Thou art all love. At His last sigh, all creatures published His sovereign power; the earth trembled, the heavens were clothed in mourning. O my God! It is by the practice of Christian perfection that I, Thy disciple, am to show that Thou art God, and the King of my heart. Help me, O Jesus! without Thee I can nothing.
Holy Mother, deign to impress upon my heart the wounds of my crucified Jesus.
We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless Thee,
because by Thy Holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.
Let us pray,
O Holy Mother! who can fathom this mystery of desolation into which thy heart, so tender and so loving, is plunged? It is not by one sword only that Mary is transpierced; I see as many buried in her soul as there are instruments in the Passion of her Son; and yet, I behold her in the attitude of the most perfect resignation, because she wishes, above all things, to accomplish the will of her God, despite the bitterness of the cup. She knows that at the bottom of the cup the salvation of the world is deposited, and in our interest, she does not wish one drop to be lost. O afflicted heart of Mary! I have been the cause of thy sorrows; thou wilt, henceforward, be the object of my most tender and most constant devotion.
Holy Mother, deign to impress upon my heart the wounds of my crucified Jesus.
Fourteenth Station: Jesus is Placed in the Sepulchre
We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless Thee,
because by Thy Holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.
Let us pray,
The hatred of the deicides is satisfied. . . . Jesus is in the Sepulchre. His voice, which condemned vice and launched ananthemas against hardened sinners, need no longer be feared. Death has chilled His tongue forever. Thus gloried the Jews; thus still glory the impious and decides of our day. For them, Jesus is no more. . . . He is a lifeless God. You are mistaken; you are wilfully blind . . . Jesus Christ lives and reigns forever and ever. His death is regeneration, it is life, eternal life.
If we wish to imbibe abundantly of this immortal life in His Adorable Blood, let us not cease to meditate, to contemplate, to bless His Passion and Death.
Holy Mother, deign to impress upon my heart the wounds of my crucified Jesus.
**Station of the cross was painted by Lydia NS Kwon**
It is located at Hosan Catholic Mission, Gangwondo, Korea.
