Hail Mary

Hail Mary full of Grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb Jesus. Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death Amen.

Filipino
Aba Ginoong Maria, napupuno ka ng Grasya, ang Panginoong Diyos ay sumasaiyo. Bukod kang pinagpala sa babaeng lahat, at pinagpala naman ang iyong anak na si Jesus
Sta. Maria, Ina ng Diyos, ipanalangin mo kaming makasalanan ngayon at kung kami ay mamamatay. Amen.

Ang Aba Ginoong Maria ( kung minsan ay tinatawag na" mala-anghel na pagbati", "Angelical Salutation" ay tinatawag din mula sa mga unang salita nito sa latin. ang "Ave Maria".

Ang Panalanging ito ay may tatlong bahagi. Una, "Aba (Ginoong Maria) napupuno ka ng Grasya, Ang Panginoong Diyos ay sumasaiyo, Bukod kang pinagpala sa babaeng lahat" ay kumakatawan sa mga salitang ginamit ng angel Gabriel sa kanyang pagbati sa Mahal na Birheng Maria (Lukas 1:28). Ikalawa, "at pinagpala naman ang nasa iyong sinapupunan (Jesus)" ay mula sa maka-Diyos na pagbati ni Sta. Elizabeth (Isabel), (Luke 1:42), ay idinugtong sa unang bahagi sapagkat ang mga salitang "benedicta tu in mulieribus" (1:28) o "inter mulieres" (1:42) ay pareho sa dalawang pagbati. Panghuli, ang panalanging Sta. Maria, Ina ng Diyos, ipanalangin mo kaming makasalanan ngayon at kung kami ay mamamatay. Amen." ay mula sa opisya na Katesismo ng Konsilyo ng Trent na itinalaga ng Simbahan. "Karapat-dapat lamang, sabi ng Katesismo" na ang Banal na Iglesia ng Diyos ay idagdag ito sa pasasalamat, paghingi at ang panalangin ng banal na Ina ng Diyos. Ito ay nagpapahayag na rin na mataimtim na lumapit sa kanya na sa pamamagitan niya ay manumbalik tayong mga makasalanan sa Diyos upang makamtan natin ang pagpapala na kailangan natin sa mundong ito at sa buhan na walang hanggan"

Maraming nagtatanong kung bakit ginagamit natin ang "Ginoong" at hindi "Ginang". Sang-ayon sa historia ng paggamit ng Filipino ito ay hindi lamang ginagamit sa mga lalaki. Ito ay ginagamit din sa mga babaeng itinuturing na at kinikilala sa lipunan na may malaking ibinahagi sa paglago nito. Ito ay isang pagpaparangal sa isang babae na higit na kinikilala bilang higit sa lahat ng mga babae.


source:www.newadvent.org

BLESSING

BLESSING


V/. Dominus vobiscum.
R/. Et cum spiritu tuo.

V/. Sit nomen Domini benedictum.
R/. Ex hoc nunc et usque in sæculum.

V/. Adiutorium nostrum in nomine Domini.
R/. Qui fecit cælum et terram.

V/. Benedicat vos omnipotens Deus, Pater, et Filius, et Spiritus Sanctus.
R/. Amen.

*** Depart Silently

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FOURTEENTH STATION: Jesus is laid in the tomb

FOURTEENTH STATION
Jesus is laid in the tomb

V/. Adoramus te, Christe, et benedicimus tibi.
R/. Quia per sanctam crucem tuam redemisti mundum.

From the Gospel according to Luke 23:50-54

Now there was a man named Joseph from the Jewish town of Arimathea. He was a member of the council, a good and righteous man, who had not consented to their purpose and deed, and he was looking for the kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down and wrapped it in a linen shroud, and laid it in a rock-hewn tomb, where no one had ever been laid. It was the day of Preparation, and the sabbath was beginning.

MEDITATION

Wrapped in the winding sheet, the "shroud", the crucified, torn body of Jesus slips slowly from the loving and gentle hands of Joseph of Arimathea into the tomb hewn from the rock. In the hours of silence which follow, Christ will truly be like all men and women who enter into the dark womb of death, the stiffening of the limbs, the end. And yet in that twilight of Good Friday something was already in the air. The Evangelist Luke notes that "the Sabbath was beginning;" lamps were already flickering in the windows of the homes of Jerusalem.

The vigil kept by the Jews in their homes becomes, as it were, a symbol of the hope of those women, of that secret disciple of Jesus, Joseph of Arimathea, and of the other disciples. An expectation that now fills with warmth the heart of every believer who stands before a tomb or feels the cold touch of sickness or death. It is the expection of a new and different dawn, which in just a few hours, once the sabbath has passed, will appear before our eyes, the eyes of Christ's followers.

* * *

When that day breaks, we will be met on the street of the tombs by the angel who will say to us: "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen"[42]! And as we return home, the Risen One will draw near and walk with us, coming to stay with us and breaking bread with us at table[43]. Then we too will pray in the faith-filled words of the magnificent Saint Matthew Passion, set to music by one of mankind's greatest musicians:[44]

"Though my heart is tearful because Jesus bids me farewell, yet his testament gives me joy. He bequeaths to me a precious treasure, his flesh and his blood… I will offer you my heart; immerse yourself therein, my Saviour! I will cast myself upon you! If the earth is too small for you, then you alone shall be for me more than earth and heaven!"

All:

Pater noster, qui es in cælis:
sanctificetur nomen tuum;
adveniat regnum tuum;
fiat voluntas tua, sicut in cælo, et in terra.
Panem nostrum cotidianum da nobis hodie;
et dimitte nobis debita nostra,
sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris;
et ne nos inducas in tentationem;
sed libera nos a malo.

Quando corpus morietur,
fac ut animæ donetur
paradisi gloria.
Amen.


[42] Luke 24:5-6.
[43] Luke 24:13-32.
[44] JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH, St Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Nos. 18-19.

*** Moment of Silence

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*** Back to Main Page

THIRTEENTH STATION: Jesus dies on the cross

THIRTEENTH STATION
Jesus dies on the cross

V/. Adoramus te, Christe, et benedicimus tibi.
R/. Quia per sanctam crucem tuam redemisti mundum.

From the Gospel according to Luke. 23:44-47

It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun's light failed; and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit!" And having said this, he breathed his last. Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, and said, "Certainly this man was innocent!".

MEDITATION

At the beginning of our journey, the veil of night had fallen upon Jerusalem; now it is the darkness of an eclipse that spreads like a shroud over Golgotha. The "power of darkness"[39] seems to loom over the land where God is dying. Yes, the Son of God, to be truly human and our brother, must also drink from the chalice of death, that death which is really the mark of every descendent of Adam. And so Christ "has been made like his brethren in every respect"[40]; he has become fully one of us, standing at our side even in that final struggle between life and death. A struggle perhaps taking place even now for a man or a woman in this city of Rome, and in countless other cities and towns throughout the world.

This is no longer the God of the Greeks and Romans, impassible and remote, like an emperor confined to the gilded skies of his Olympus. In the dying Christ, God is now revealed as passionately in love with his creatures, even to the point of freely imprisoning himself within their twilight of pain and death. The crucifix is thus a universal human sign of the solitude of death, and of injustice and evil. But it is also a universal divine sign of hope for the fulfilment of the expectations of every centurion, that is, of every restless and searching person.

* * *

Indeed, even high on the cross, dying on that gibbet, Jesus, as he breathes his last, does not cease to be the Son of God. At that moment every human experience of suffering and death is embraced by the divine. It is made radiant with eternity, a seed of eternal life is planted within it, a spark of divine light bursts forth.

Death, while losing nothing of its tragedy, now shows an unexpected face: it has the same eyes as the heavenly Father. That is why Jesus at that final hour utters a touching prayer: "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." Let us make that plea our own, in the prayerful words of a poet:[41] "Father, let your fingers also close my own eyes. / You who are a Father to me, turn to me like a tender Mother, / at the bedside of her gently sleeping child. / Father, come to me and take me into your arms."

All:

Pater noster, qui es in cælis:
sanctificetur nomen tuum;
adveniat regnum tuum;
fiat voluntas tua, sicut in cælo, et in terra.
Panem nostrum cotidianum da nobis hodie;
et dimitte nobis debita nostra,
sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris;
et ne nos inducas in tentationem;
sed libera nos a malo.

Vidit suum dulcem Natum
morientem desolatum,
cum emisit spiritum.


[39] Luke 22:53.
[40] Hebrews 2:17.
[41] MARIE NOËL, Song and Hours (1930).

*** Moment of Silence

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*** Back to Main Page

TWELFTH STATION: The crucified Jesus, the Mother and the disciple

TWELFTH STATION
The crucified Jesus, the Mother and the disciple

V/. Adoramus te, Christe, et benedicimus tibi.
R/. Quia per sanctam crucem tuam redemisti mundum.

From the Gospel according to John. 19:25-27

Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother: "Woman, behold your son!" Then he said to the disciple: "Behold your mother!". And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.

MEDITATION

She had begun to distance herself from her Son since the day when, at twelve years old, he had told her that he had another home and another mission to accomplish, in the name of his Father in heaven. But now Mary faces the moment of complete separation. At that hour she felt the agony of all mothers who, contrary to the very nature of things, see their children precede them in death. But the Evangelist John wipes away every tear from her sorrowful face, silences every cry of lament from her lips, and keeps Mary from flinging herself to the ground in despair.

Instead, there is an aura of silence broken by a voice that descends from the cross and from the lips of her dying Son. It is much more than the usual testament: it is a revelation which marks a turning-point in the life of his Mother. That supreme separation of death is not barren but unexpectedly fruitful, like a mother giving birth. Just as Jesus himself had said a few hours earlier, on the final evening of his earthly life: "When a woman is in travail she has sorrow, because her hour has come; but when she is delivered of the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a child is born into the world"[38].

* * *

Mary goes back to being a mother: it is significant that in the few lines of the Gospel account this word -- mother -- appears fully five times. Mary goes back to being a mother, and her children will be those who are like "the beloved disciple", that is, all those who take shelter under the mantle of God's saving grace and follow Jesus in faith and love.

From that moment on, Mary will no longer be alone. She will become the mother of the Church, an immense assembly of every language, nation and people, who down the centuries will join her in clinging to the cross of Christ, her firstborn Son. From that moment on, we too walk with her along the path of faith, we stay with her in the house where the Spirit of Pentecost blows, we sit at the table where the bread of the Eucharist is broken and we await the day when her Son will return to bring us, like her, into the eternity of his glory.

All:

Pater noster, qui es in cælis:
sanctificetur nomen tuum;
adveniat regnum tuum;
fiat voluntas tua, sicut in cælo, et in terra.
Panem nostrum cotidianum da nobis hodie;
et dimitte nobis debita nostra,
sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris;
et ne nos inducas in tentationem;
sed libera nos a malo.

Fac me tecum pie flere,
Crucifixo condolere,
donec ego vixero.

[38] John 16:21.

*** Moment of Silence

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*** Back to Main Page

ELEVENTH STATION: Jesus promises his Kingdom to the good thief

ELEVENTH STATION
Jesus promises his Kingdom to the good thief

V/. Adoramus te, Christe, et benedicimus tibi.
R/. Quia per sanctam crucem tuam redemisti mundum.

From the Gospel according to Luke. 23:39-43

One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!" But the other rebuked him, saying, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong." And he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." And he said to him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."

MEDITATION

The minutes pass, as the crucified Jesus approaches his death; his life and his strength are slowly ebbing away. And yet he still has the strength to make a final gesture of love to one of the two men condemned to death who are beside him at that tragic moment, when the sun is still high in the heavens. Between Christ and that man a brief dialogue takes place, consisting of two essential phrases.

First, there is the plea of the criminal, whom tradition calls the "good thief", who is converted at the final hour of his life: "Jesus, remember me when you enter into your kingdom!" It is almost as if he was reciting his personal version of the "Our Father" with its invocation "Thy Kingdom come!" But he addresses it directly to Jesus, calling him by name, a name of extraordinary significance at that moment: "The Lord saves". Then, an imperative: "Remember me!" In the language of the Bible this verb has a particular force which conveys much more than our colourless word "remember". It is word that breathes certainty and confidence, as if to say: "Take care of me, do not abandon me, be like a friend who supports me and defends me!".

* * *

Then there is the reply of Jesus, quick, almost a whisper: "Today you will be with me in Paradise." This word, "Paradise", so rare in the Scriptures as to appear only two other times in the New Testament[37], in its original meaning suggests a lush and fruitful garden. It is a fragrant image of the Kingdom of light and peace that Jesus had proclaimed in his preaching and inaugurated with his miracles and which would shortly appear in its glory at Easter. It is the goal of our toilsome journey through history, it is fullness of life, it is the intimacy of God's embrace. It is the final gift which Christ makes to us, in the sacrifice of his death which opens up to the glory of the resurrection.

On that day of anguish and pain, those two crucified men said nothing else, yet the few words gasped from their parched throats echo even today. They will continue to echo as a sign of hope and salvation for those who have sinned, but have also come to believe and trust, even at life's final frontier.

All:

Pater noster, qui es in cælis:
sanctificetur nomen tuum;
adveniat regnum tuum;
fiat voluntas tua, sicut in cælo, et in terra.
Panem nostrum cotidianum da nobis hodie;
et dimitte nobis debita nostra,
sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris;
et ne nos inducas in tentationem;
sed libera nos a malo.

Sancta mater, istud agas,
Crucifixi fige plagas
cordi meo valide.


[37] Cf. 2 Corinthians 12:4; Revelation 2:7.

*** Moment of Silence

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*** Back to Main Page

TENTH STATION : Jesus is crucified

TENTH STATION
Jesus is crucified

V/. Adoramus te, Christe, et benedicimus tibi.
R/. Quia per sanctam crucem tuam redemisti mundum.

From the Gospel according to Luke. 23:33-38

And when they came to the place which is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on the right and one on the left. And Jesus said, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." And they cast lots to divide his garments. And the people stood by, watching; but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, "He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!" The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him vinegar, and saying, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!" There was also an inscription over him, "This is the King ofthe Jews."

MEDITATION

It was merely a rocky spur, called Golgotha in Aramaic and, in Latin, Calvary, "the Skull", perhaps because of its physical appearance. On that peak rise three crosses, the crosses of men sentenced to death, two "criminals", probably anti-Roman revolutionaries, and Jesus. The last hours of Christ's earthly life begin, hours marked by the rending of his flesh, the dislocation of his bones, progressive asphyxia, interior desolation. These are hours that demonstrate the complete solidarity of the Son of God with human beings who suffer and slowly die.

A poet[33] once said: "The thief on the left and the thief on the right / felt only the nails driven into their hands. / But Christ felt the pain offered for salvation, / his side torn open, his heart run through. / It is his heart that burned. / His heart consumed by love." Truly, all around that cross there seem to echo the words of Isaiah: "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed. He makes himself an offering for sin"[34]. The outstretched arms of that mangled body want to draw to themselves the entire horizon, embracing humanity, "as a hen gathers her brood under her wings"[35]. For this was his mission: "When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself"[36].

* * *

Beneath that dying body files the crowd, anxious to "view" a ghastly spectacle. It is a scene of superficiality, crass curiosity, thrill-seeking. A picture in which we can also see a society like our own, which looks for stimulation and excess as if they were a kind of drug capable of arousing a sluggish soul, an unfeeling heart, a darkened mind.

Beneath that cross there is also cold hard cruelty, that of the leaders and the soldiers who in their ruthlessness are even capable of profaning suffering and death by their mockery: "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!" They are unaware that their words of sarcasm and the official title above the cross -- "This is the King of the Jews" -- are full of truth. Certainly, Jesus does not come down from the cross in a sudden dramatic turnabout: he does not desire servile obedience based on miracles, but a faith that is free, a love that is authentic. And yet, in his abject humiliation and in the very powerlessness of his death, he opens the door to glory and life, and reveals himself as the true Lord and King of history and of the world.

All:

Pater noster, qui es in cælis:
sanctificetur nomen tuum;
adveniat regnum tuum;
fiat voluntas tua, sicut in cælo, et in terra.
Panem nostrum cotidianum da nobis hodie;
et dimitte nobis debita nostra,
sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris;
et ne nos inducas in tentationem;
sed libera nos a malo.

Fac ut ardeat cor meum
in amando Christum Deum,
ut sibi complaceam.


[33] CHARLES PÉGUY, The Mystery of the Charity of Saint Joan of Arc (1910).
[34] Isaiah 53:5, 10.

[35] Luke 13:34.
[36] John 12:32.

*** Moment of Silence

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*** Back to Main Page

NINTH STATION: Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem

NINTH STATION
Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem

V/. Adoramus te, Christe, et benedicimus tibi.
R/. Quia per sanctam crucem tuam redemisti mundum.

From the Gospel according to Luke. 23:27-31

And there followed him a great multitude of the people, and of women who bewailed and lamented him. But Jesus turning to them said: "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, 'Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never gave suck! Then they will begin to say to the mountains, 'Fall on us'; and to the hills, 'Cover us. ' For if they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?"

MEDITATION

On that spring Friday, the path leading to Golgotha was thronged not only with the idle, the curious and those hostile to Jesus. There was also a group of women, perhaps the members of a group devoted to consolation and ritual lamentation for the dying and those condemned to death. Christ, during his earthly life, had overcome convention and prejudice, and had often surrounded himself with women, conversing with them, listening to their troubles, small and great: from the fever of Peter's mother-in-law to the tragedy of the widow of Nain, from the weeping prostitute to the interior anguish of Mary Magdalen, from the affection of Martha and Mary to the sufferings of the woman afflicted by hemorrages, from the young daughter of Jairus to the crippled elderly woman, from the noble Joanna, the wife of Chuza, to the poor widow and the women in the crowd that followed him.

Jesus, to his final hour, is thus surrounded by a world of mothers, daughters and sisters. Standing at his side we now can also imagine all those women who have been abused and raped, ostracized and submitted to shameful tribal practices, anxious women left to raise their children alone, Jewish and Palestinian mothers, and those from all countries at war, widows and the elderly forgotten by their children… a long line of women who bear witness before an arid and pitiless world to the gift of tenderness and compassion, even as they did for the Son of Mary on that late morning in Jerusalem. They teach us the beauty of emotions: that we should not be ashamed when our heart is moved by compassion, when tears sometimes come to our eyes, when we feel the need of a caress and comforting words.

* * *

Jesus does not disregard the charitable concern shown by those women, just as once he had accepted other gestures of kindness. But paradoxically, he is now the one who is concerned for the sufferings about to befall those "daughters of Jerusalem": "Do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children." Looming on the horizon is a firestorm about to break upon the people and the holy city, a "dry wood" ready to stir up the blaze.

Jesus' gaze turns to the divine judgement soon to be visited on the evil, injustice, and hatred that feed that flame. Christ is distressed at the grief that is about to overtake those mothers once God's just intervention bursts in upon history. But his ominous words are not the seal set upon a hopeless fate, because he speaks with the voice of the prophets, a voice that creates not suffering and death, but conversion and life: "Seek the Lord and live… Then shall the maidens rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy, I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow"[32].

All:

Pater noster, qui es in cælis:
sanctificetur nomen tuum;
adveniat regnum tuum;
fiat voluntas tua, sicut in cælo, et in terra.
Panem nostrum cotidianum da nobis hodie;
et dimitte nobis debita nostra,
sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris;
et ne nos inducas in tentationem;
sed libera nos a malo.

Eia mater, fons amoris,
me sentire vim doloris
fac, ut tecum lugeam.

[32] Amos 5:6; Jeremiah 31:13.

*** Moment of Silence

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*** Back to Main Page

EIGHTH STATION: Jesus is helped by the Cyrenean to carry his cross

EIGHTH STATION
Jesus is helped by the Cyrenean to carry his cross

V/. Adoramus te, Christe, et benedicimus tibi.
R/. Quia per sanctam crucem tuam redemisti mundum.

From the Gospel according to Luke. 23:26

And as they led him away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the cross, to carry it behind Jesus.

MEDITATION

He was returning from the countryside, perhaps after a few hours of work. Awaiting him at home were the preparations for the holy day: sunset, in fact, would mark the beginning of the Sabbath, as the first stars began to shine in the evening sky. His name was Simon; he was a Jew, a native of Cyrene, a city on the Libyan strand which was home to a large community of the Jewish Diaspora[23]. A curt order by the Roman soldiers escorting Jesus stops him in his tracks and forces him to take a turn at carrying the cross of that half-dead convict.

Simon was a chance passerby; he did not know how extraordinary that encounter was to be. As someone once wrote[24], "how many men over the centuries would have wanted to be there, in his place, to have been passing by just at that moment. But it was too late; he was the one who had passed by and over the centuries he would never have yielded his place to others." Here we see the mystery of the unexpected encounter with God which happens in so many lives. Paul, the Apostle, had been intercepted, seized and "overcome"[25] by Christ on the way to Damascus. And this led him to ponder anew those astonishing words of God: "I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me"[26].

* * *

God lies in waiting along the paths of our daily life. At times he knocks on our door and asks to sit at our table to eat with us[27]. Even a chance encounter, like that of Simon of Cyrene, can become a gift of conversion. Indeed, the Evangelist Mark will name of the sons of that man, Alexander and Rufus, as fellow Christians[28]. The Cyrenean is thus the emblem of the mysterious embrace of divine grace and human effort. In the end, the Evangelist paints him as the disciple who "takes up the cross behind Jesus" and follows in his footsteps [29].

His gesture, carried out under constraint, becomes a symbol for every act of solidarity with the suffering, the oppressed, the weary. The Cyreanean thus represents the innumerable host of generous persons, missionaries, Samaritans who do not "pass by on the other side" of the street [30], but bend low to assist the suffering, to lift them up and to give them support. Over Simon's head and shoulders, bent beneath the weight of the cross, echo the words of Saint Paul: "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ"[31].

All:

Pater noster, qui es in cælis:
sanctificetur nomen tuum;
adveniat regnum tuum;
fiat voluntas tua, sicut in cælo, et in terra.
Panem nostrum cotidianum da nobis hodie;
et dimitte nobis debita nostra,
sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris;
et ne nos inducas in tentationem;
sed libera nos a malo.

Tui Nati vulnerati,
tam dignati pro me pati,
pœnas mecum divide.


[23] Cf, Acts 2:10; 6:9; 13:1.
[24] CHARLES PÉGUY, The Mystery of the Charity of Saint Joan of Arc (1910).
[25] Philippians 3:12.

[26] Romans 10:20.
[27] Cf. Revelation 3:20.
[28] Cf. Mark 15:21.

[29] Cf. Luke 9:23.
[30] Cf. Luke 10:30-37.
[31] Galatians 6:2.


*** Moment of Silence

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SEVENTH STATION: Jesus takes up his cross

SEVENTH STATION
Jesus takes up his cross

V/. Adoramus te, Christe, et benedicimus tibi.
R/. Quia per sanctam crucem tuam redemisti mundum.

From the Gospel according to Mark. 15:20

And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak, and put his own clothes on him. And they led him out to crucify him.

MEDITATION

In the courtyards of the imperial palace the grim sport has ended, the silly royal robes have been taken away, the doors open. And Jesus comes forth, dressed in his own clothing, in a tunic "without seam, woven from top to bottom"[19]. His shoulders are bent beneath the cross-beam which will receive his arms and then be attached to the pole of the crucifix. His is a silent presence, his footprints stain with blood that street of Jerusalem which even today bears the name "Via Dolorosa".

Now begins the real Way of the Cross, the route we repeat tonight, which leads to the hill of executions, outside the walls of the holy city. Jesus slowly makes his way forward, his mangled, weak body staggering beneath the weight of the cross. Tradition has symbolically marked that route by three falls. They reflect the unending story of all those women and men laid low by poverty or starvation: frail children, the aged and infirm, the weak and the poor, those from whose veins all strength has been sucked.

Those falls also contain the story of all those who are desolate and unhappy, ignored by the busy and distracted crowd which hurries by. In Christ, bent beneath the weight of the cross, we see that frail and sickly humanity of which the prophet Isaiah says[20] "deep from the earth shall you speak, from low in the dust your words shall come; your voice shall come from the ground like the voice of a ghost, and your speech shall whisper out of the dust."

* * *

Today too, as then, surrounding Jesus as he picks himself up and pushes forward carrying the wood of the cross, is the daily life of the street, with its business deals, its bright shop windows, its pursuit of pleasure. Surrounding him, however, there is not only hostility or indifference. Even today there are those who choose to follow him, to walk in his footsteps. They have heard the summons that he had issued one day as he walked through the fields of Galilee: "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me"[21]. "Let us, then, go forth to him outside the camp and bear the abuse he endured"[22]. At the end of the Via Dolorosa is not only the mount of death or the darkness of the tomb, but also the mount of his glorious Ascension, the mount of light.

All:

Pater noster, qui es in cælis:
sanctificetur nomen tuum;
adveniat regnum tuum;
fiat voluntas tua, sicut in cælo, et in terra.
Panem nostrum cotidianum da nobis hodie;
et dimitte nobis debita nostra,
sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris;
et ne nos inducas in tentationem;
sed libera nos a malo.

Quis non posset contristari,
piam matrem contemplari
dolentem cum Filio?


[19] John 19:23.
[20] Isaiah 29:4.

[21] Luke 9:23
[22] Hebrews 13:13

*** Moment of Silence

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BLESSING
*** Back to the Main Page

SIXTH STATION: Jesus is scourged and crowned with thorns

SIXTH STATION
Jesus is scourged and crowned with thorns

V/. Adoramus te, Christe, et benedicimus tibi.
R/. Quia per sanctam crucem tuam redemisti mundum.

From the Gospel according to Luke. 22:63-65

Now the men who were holding Jesus mocked him and beat him; they also blindfolded him and asked him, "Prophesy! Who is it that struck you?" and they spoke many other words against him, reviling him.

From the Gospel according to John. 19:2-3

And the soldiers plaited a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and arrayed him in a purple robe; they came up to him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" and struck him with their hands.

MEDITATION

One day, walking in the valley of the Jordan not far from Jericho, Jesus halted and spoke to the Twelve with words of fire, words they found impossible to understand: "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the Gentiles, and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon; and they will scourge him and kill him, ….[14]". Now at last, the full meaning of those enigmatic words is revealed: in the courtyard of the pretorium, the residence of the Roman governor in Jerusalem, the grim ritual of torture has begun, while outside the palace the murmur of the crowd begins to swell, in expectation of the spectacle of the death march.

In that room closed to the public, things take place that will be repeated down the centuries in a thousand sadistic and perverse ways, in the darkness of countless prison cells. Jesus is not only physically struck but mocked. Indeed, the Evangelist Luke, to describe those insults, uses the word "blaspheme", as if to bring out the deepest meaning of the violent abuse which the soldiers heap on their victim. And the torments inflicted upon Christ's flesh are accompanied by a gruesome farce that is an affront to his personal dignity.

* * *

The Evangelist John recounts that insulting parody, based on the popular game of the mock king. There is a crown whose points are made of thorny twigs; the royal purple is replaced by a red mantle; there is the imperial salute: "Hail, Caesar!". And yet, behind all this mockery, we can see a glorious sign: yes, Jesus is reviled like a mock king, yet in reality he is the true Sovereign of history.

When, in the end, his kingship will be revealed -- as another Evangelist, Matthew, tells us[15] -- he will condemn every torturer and tyrant, and summon into his glory not only their victims, but all those who visited prisoners, healed the wounded and the suffering, and assisted the hungry, the thirsty and the persecuted. Now, however, the face transfigured on Tabor [16] is disfigured; the one who is "the reflection of God's glory"[17] is darkened and abased; as Isaiah had proclaimed, the messianic Servant of the Lord has his back furrowed by the lash, his beard plucked, his face covered with spittle [18]. In him, the God of glory, our suffering humanity is revealed; in him, the Lord of history, the frailty of every creature is revealed; in him, the Creator of the world, the painful cry of every living creature finds an echo.

All:

Pater noster, qui es in cælis:
sanctificetur nomen tuum;
adveniat regnum tuum;
fiat voluntas tua, sicut in cælo, et in terra.
Panem nostrum cotidianum da nobis hodie;
et dimitte nobis debita nostra,
sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris;
et ne nos inducas in tentationem;
sed libera nos a malo.

Pro peccatis suae gentis
vidit Iesum in tormentis
et flagellis subditum.


[14] Luke 18:31-32
[15] Cf. Matthew 25:31-46.

[16] Cf. Luke 9:29.
[17] Cf. Hebrews 1:3.
[18] Cf. Isaiah 50:6

*** Moment of Silence

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FIFTH STATION : Jesus is judged by Pilate

FIFTH STATION
Jesus is judged by Pilate

V/. Adoramus te, Christe, et benedicimus tibi.
R/. Quia per sanctam crucem tuam redemisti mundum.

From the Gospel according to Luke. 23:13-25

Pilate called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people, and said to them, "You brought me this man as one who was perverting the people; and after examining him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him; neither did Herod, for he sent him back to us. Behold, nothing deserving death has been done by him; I will therefore chastise him and release him." But they all cried out together, "Away with this man, and release to us Barabbas -- a man who had been thrown into prison for an insurrection started in the city, and for murder. Pilate addressed them once more, desiring to release Jesus; but they shouted out, "Crucify, crucify him!" A third time he said to them, "Why, what evil has he done? I have found in him no crime deserving death; I will therefore chastise him and release him. But they were urgent, demanding with loud cries that he should be crucified. And their voices prevailed. So Pilate gave sentence that their demand should be granted. He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, whom they asked for; but Jesus he delivered up to their will.

MEDITATION

Jesus is now surrounded by the insignia of empire, the banners, eagles and standards of Roman authority, in yet another fortress of power, the palace of the governor Pontius Pilate, an obscure man whose name is overlooked in the histories of the Roman Empire. And yet it is a name which is heard every Sunday throughout the world, precisely because of the trial now taking place: for Christians proclaim in the Creed that Christ "was crucified under Pontius Pilate". On the one hand, he seems to incarnate repressive brutality, inasmuch as Luke, on one page of his Gospel, speaks of the day in the temple when he had mingled the blood of Jews with that of the sacrificial animals [12]. At his side we encounter another dark, strange power: the savage power of the masses, manipulated by occult forces hatching plots in the shadows. The result is the decision to release an insurgent and a murderer, Barabbas.

On the other hand, however, a different image of Pilate emerges: he seems to stand for the traditional equity and impartiality of Roman law. Three times, in fact, Pilate attempts to release Jesus for insufficient evidence, imposing at most the disciplinary sanction of scourging. The charges against him did not stand up to a serious judicial inquiry. As all the Evangelists show, Pilate displays a certain openness, a receptiveness that nonetheless slowly fades away and dies.

* * *

Pressured by public opinion, Pilate embodies an attitude which appears common enough in our own times: indifference, lack of concern, personal expediency. To avoid trouble and to get ahead, we are ready to trample on truth and justice. Explicit immorality generates at least a shock or some reaction, whereas this approach is pure amorality; it paralyzes the conscience, stifles remorse, and blunts the mind. Indifference is the lingering death of authentic humanity.

The outcome is found in Pilate's final choice. As the ancient Romans would say, a false and apathetic justice is like a spiderweb in which gnats are caught and die, but which birds can tear apart by the strength of their flight. Jesus, one of the little ones of the earth, powerless to utter a word, is smothered by this web. And as we ourselves so often do, Pilate looks on from afar, washes his hands and, as an alibi, tosses off -- so the Evangelist John tells us [13] -- the age-old question typical of every form of scepticism and ethical relativism: "What is truth?".

All:

Pater noster, qui es in cælis:
sanctificetur nomen tuum;
adveniat regnum tuum;
fiat voluntas tua, sicut in cælo, et in terra.
Panem nostrum cotidianum da nobis hodie;
et dimitte nobis debita nostra,
sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris;
et ne nos inducas in tentationem;
sed libera nos a malo.

Quis est homo qui non fleret,
matrem Christi si videret
in tanto supplicio?


[12] Cf. Luke 13:1.
[13] John 18:38

*** Moment of silence

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BLESSING
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