1. loving God, give us
A pure heart
that we may see you,
a humble heart
that we may hear you,
a heart of Love
that we may serve you,
A heart of faith
that we may abide in you.
-dag hammarskjold
(1905-1961)
The Stations
of the
Cross

2. Holy darkness, blessed night,
heaven's answer hidden from our sight.
As we await you, O God of silence,
we embrace your holy night.
1. I have tried you in fires of affliction;
I have taught your soul to grieve.
In the barren soil of your loneliness,
there I will plant my seed.
2. I have taught you the price of compassion;
you have stood before the grave.
Though my love can seem
like a raging storm,
this is the love that saves.
3. Were you there
when I raised up the mountains?
Can you guide the morning star?
Does the hawk take flight
when you give command?
Why do you doubt my pow'r?
4. In your deepest hour of darkness
I will give you wealth untold.
When the silence stills your spirit,
will my riches fill your soul.
5. As the watchman waits for morning,
and the bride awaits her groom,
so we wait to hear your footsteps
as we rest beneath your moon.

3. Text
1st station of the cross
Jesus is condemned
a brave woman in Tehran, desperately seeking the right to freedom,
faces without fear many law enforcement officers wearing protective
helmets, shields and clubs, responding with force and encouraging All:
violent reaction. Give me the courage to speak out against
injustice where i may find it. Strengthen my
Jesus, you know what it is like to be taken captive by armed guards. conviction to support others in their
You spoke truth and were condemned by those in power. When Peter struggle for what it right. Help me to cope
responded with his sword, you told him to put it away, saying, “Those with conflict your way, the way of peace
who use the sword are sooner or later destroyed by it.” and non-violent resistance

4. 2nd station of the cross
Jesus carries his cross
in life, we are often handed challenging situation. This is an all too All:
common scene in many parts of the world: a father carrying his child’s Teach me to choose love,
coffin. bent under the devastating sorrow, he walks the dusty road in to choose justice and
quiet dignity. Every day brutal oppression, poverty and disease are to choose life
taking the lives of innocent and vulnerable children. that i may be able to carry
my crosses with patience
Jesus, you were made to carry a heavy cross. sorrowful unto death, and with dignity
you endured the weight of human sadness, stumbling towards the
light of God’s merciful love. When i think of how i worry or complain...

5. 3rd station of the cross
Jesus falls for the first time
unhappy marriage, separation, or divorce. feeling hurt, angry and All:
betrayed, divorce in her mind will stop the pain. Yet, like when we when burdens of sorrow weigh heavily
learned to walk, we fell and felt pain to be able to walk. as adults, upon me, i sometimes find it difficult to
when we learn to love, we fall and feel pain to be able to love more see hope in a new day. When i stumble
deeply. whether the downward spiral of divorce leads to marital and fall, when i mourn for what is lost,
reconciliation or the deep grieving for a love that was lost, when we give me your strength to rise and walk
fall and experience pain, let us hold the hurt and betrayal in only one again.
hand, as our other hand helps bring us to our feet.
In the grieving process, we are cleansed and strengthened.
We can go on.

6. 3rd station of the cross
Jesus meets his Mother
A sorrowing mother cradles the hand of
her premature son. Her hand prepares to
let him go. She represents countless other
mothers deprived of their children because
of premature birth resulting from a long list
of unimaginable possibilities. Often
poverty, or lack of health care, is the
reason that his life will end. Poverty does
not respect age. The bond between
mother and child silently communicates
their shared pain. The mother’s heart is
breaking as she accepts this sorrow.
Jesus, when you met your mother, Mary on
the road to Calvary, you felt her pain in
seeing you suffer. Each of you wanted to
ease the suffering of the other. Yet through
this sorrow, you knew her broken heart
would become a source of comfort to
mothers in other times and places.
All:
Open my heart so that when, like Mary, I see a loved one suffer
i will be a source of compassion.

7. 5th station of the cross
Simon Helps Jesus
Being forced to do manual labor to
support impoverished families invites
the lure of evil often pushing children
with little experience of play or study
into drugs or prostitution.
Poor people have very little choice.
Simon was forced to help when the
soldiers pulled him from the crowd.
When simon lifted the cross, he knew
the gift of a burden shared.
All:
How often Lord, do i take for
granted the backbreaking labor
of others to produce the food i
eat or the clothes i wear. How
many times have i passed you
by in the struggling person
whom i didn’t stop to help?

8. 6th station of the cross
Veronica wipes the face of Jesus
my dear friend Francoise
feeds her husband, ravaged
with a malignant brain tumor,
as they share an intimate
moment together. Even
when all else is lost, the
healing hand of loving
compassion reaches out.
Veronica is every woman.
She is the feminine face of
God in the world that
recognized and responded
to Christ’s pain. She is the
woman in all of us that
would dare to break through
the crowd to comfort you.
All:
Teach me to let go of the things that hold
me back from reaching out to others. Give
me the courage of Veronica to be willing to
risk all in the name of compassion.

9. 7th station of the cross
Jesus falls for the second time.
addiction: whether it’s crack from a
street dealer or a tidy prescription
bottle from Walgreens, addiction
drops all people to their knees.
The effects of chemical
dependency on the body and
personality knock down
surrounding loved ones as well,
little and big. Struggling endlessly
for survival, standing up to the fall
of additiction is possible. often after All:
loosing everything. Help me to truly see what
habits diminish my freedom.
Lord, none of us is perfect. We all What habits make me hard
have deep difficulty: some physical, to live with? Help me to
some emotional and some regain control of my life,
psychological. Our sickness is especially in those areas that
sometimes inherited and damage other people. Give
sometimes it is just something me your spirit, Lord, and
contagious that we “caught.” help me to continue in spite
When living in freedom is of difficult odds.
impossible, it is hard to keep going.

10. 6th station of the cross
Veronica wipes the face of Jesus
8th station of the cross
Jesus comforts the women
8th station of the cross
arab christian women walk with Jesus. while these women mourn, they march to demand
freedom and demonstrate their love. They do not shout or scream. their presence expresses
All:
Give me your courage, Jesus, in situations that
Jesus comforts the women
their cry for justice. The love of these women is stronger than fear. When Jesus carried his
cross he met other courageous women who wept for his suffering. call for my taking a risk. Help me to remember
that your spirit is within me always, comforting
Jesus, your strength shines forth in these sorrowing women. When i am called to speak out
me in times of opposition.
and stand up for others, i sometimes hold back. I am afraid of what others may think.

11. 9th station of the cross
Jesus falls for the third time
the weight of extreme parental, social
and cultural pressure forces this child
to despair. as others pass him by and
ignore his silent pain and suffering, he
is left to feeling totally alone and
down. he may face the hideous
temptations of suicide when he is
older and struggling through college. All:
How often are we as parents ignoring Open my eyes Lord, to the fullness
the true image of God within our
children, yet we are willing to pay
exorbitant prices for prestigious of this life, as it is truly lived.
educational institutions.
Open my heart Lord to the needs
Lord, when did i see your face in the
least likely: the homeless, the of so many people who have fallen.
unemployed, the outcast, the
abandoned, the overwhelmed child
and pass you by?

12. 10th station of the cross
Jesus is stripped
stripped down to a hospital gown, a young boy awaits treatment. All:
hearing his parents concerns about money and insurance, he is Give me new eyes to recognize you in the poor,
stripped of security. he feels something bad is happening. the destitute and the medially uninsured. Give
me a new heart and new hands to work
Jesus you are in and with each person stripped of security and dignity, towards alleviating others’ suffering.
each person deprived of the basic human rights of food, shelter,
clothing and medical attention.

13. 11th station of the cross
Jesus is nailed to the cross
All:
Like a nail breaking through the innocent skin of Give each human
Jesus’ hand, a terrorist controlled airplane being the courage to
penetrates the skin of the world trade center building. examine their
conscience before they
Jesus, each time we ignore injustice, act, however big or
we nail you to the cross of indifference. small their action be.

14. 12th station of the cross
Jesus dies on the cross
Men, women and children are dying
from environmental devastation. It is
the stuff of academy award winning
movies that make us think we have
conquered, yet the mess continues.
Inexplicable “cancer clusters” define
areas where people are dying in
unheard of rates from terminal forms
of cancer, yet political leaders often
try to bury the truth alive. It is not an
easy choice to do what is right.
Every day we are faced with our own
difficult choices; to seek the truth or
the easy way out, to forgive or hold
a grudge, to be honest with
ourselves or blame someone else, to
take action now or wait until there is
no other choice.
We read in the Scripture, “Choose
Life that you may live.” Jesus, you
chose a life of justice, love and truth.
You accepted death on the cross
that we might live.
All: Fill me with your spirit, Lord. Help
me to choose life in all situations and
be a source of truth, purity and hope
for others. In the very worst of
situations, help us to look with eyes
of mercy on those who seek to harm
us.

15. 13th station of the cross
the body of Jesus is taken down
Love reveals itself most in difficult times. It is
easy to be a friend when all is going well, but to
stand by the seriously ill, the lost and the
suffering demonstrates the love Jesus meant
when he said, “love one another as i have loved
you.” john 15:12. Relieving another person’s
burdens can turn a stranger into a friend.
Jesus, after you died, only a few friends stayed
behind to take your body down from the cross.
Some of your followers turned away in
disappointment; others fled in fear.
All:
Give me the strength, Lord,
to be a faithful friend. Help
me to be consistent in my
love for others, so that i
stand by them in good
times and bad, in joy and in
sorrow, and in their struggle
for justice.

16. 14th station of the cross
Jesus is buried
How carefully this body is wrapped and lowered into
the earth. Even the poorest grave can be a proper
resting place when the body is treated reverently.
Every culture has its own practices for respecting the
dead.
To be buried as a pauper in an unmarked grave
represents the ultimate abandonment in life. Yet so
many people in the world are buried without
recognition, with no proper burial place. Massive
death occurs from famine, disease and war. Entire
populations are wiped out from earthquakes and
floods. Homeless people die without family or
friends.
Jesus, you had no burial place of your own. Yet
when your body was taken down from the cross
your friends reverently placed it in a borrowed tomb.
Help me always to remember that each person is a
sacred and to be treated with reverence both in life
and in death.
all: Lord, through me, your love raches out to
others. When i respect myself and others, I am
recognizing the beauty of your creation,
noticing that “the world is charged with the
grandeur of God.”

17. 15th station/chemin
Jesus is risen from the dead
leader: They came to the tomb and found the
stone rolled away, but when they went in they
did not find the body. While they were perplexed
about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes
stood beside them. The women were terrified
and bowed their faces to the ground, but the
men said to them, “Why do you look for the
living among the dead? He is not here, but has
risen.” (lk 24: 1-5)
prayer: By retracing the steps of his passion and
death, and following his path through suffering
to glory, may we be inspired to lead lives on
earth which are pleasing to God and one day be
found worthy of praise in your heavenly home.
All: O Lord, hear our prayer.

18. nature teaches the passion of Christ
as it was, is and will be
with the seeds of beauty
blossoming in a simple passion flower
full with crown of purple thorns
radiating God’s grace and hope

19. Divine Mercy: the gift of metanoia
resurrection
life, made new
From isolation and suffering to glory and joy,
may we be inspired to lead lives on earth
which are pleasing to God.
May we learn how to open our closed selves
and receive the gift of God’s love,
with thankful hearts,
or the gift does not exist
it goes, unreceived.
May we shed the old skins of self-contempt
renewed, loving others as you love yourself.
All: O Lord, hear our prayer.