OPENING PRAYER
Leader: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
All: Amen.
Leader: Let us pray.
All: Lord Jesus, as we come humbly before you, we present our offenses, confess the darkness of our mistakes, and uncover the inmost recesses of our conscience. Help us to find a remedy for our wounded selves and our broken world. We long to see Your presence among us, but we are blinded by the darkness of our sins.
Come the Lord Jesus, supply us with the remedy for our infirmities; prepare an ointment for the eyes of our hearts that we may not stumble like blind men but follow Your footsteps to the Cross of Salvation. Amen.
Sing: Memory of the Passion
FIRST STATION
JESUS IS CONDEMNED TO DEATH
Leader: We adore you, O Christ and we praise You.
All: Because by Your Holy Cross, You have redeemed the world. Leader: We condemn You to death whenever we turn away from the light of Your truth. Every time we refuse to see You in those who need us, it is You who die within us- and within us.
Pause...
Leader: Let us pray.
All: Open our eyes, Lord. Help us to see that it is we who condemn You to the Cross every day. Forgive us, Lord.
Lord, shed the light of Your truth on our every action. Help us to see You in the people we claim to love. Help us to see You in those we have not yet learned to love.
Sing: At the Cross her station keeping, Stood the mournful Mother weeping, Close to Jesus to the last.
SECOND STATION
JESUS TAKES UP HIS CROSS
Leader: We adore You, O Christ and we praise You.
All: Because by Your Holy Cross, You have redeemed the world.
Leader: The Cross that we reject- the Cross of sickness, of pain, of misunderstanding – is the Cross You take upon Your shoulders. It is our Cross, Lord, and You carry it for us. It is our sin, and You have taken it upon Your back.
Pause...
Leader: Let us pray.
All: Lord, open our eyes that we might see our Cross in the light of Your love. Lord, God of love, heal us.
Lord, in this day of our salvation, shed the light of Your truth on our every action. Help us to accept the Cross that we have built our own faults and failings.
Sing: Through her heart, His sorrow sharing, All His bitter anguish bearing, Lo! The piercing sword had passed!
THIRD STATION
JESUS FALLS THE FIRST TIME
Leader: We adore You, O Christ and we praise You.
All: Because by Your Holy Cross, You have redeemed the world.
Leader: We see You fall, and we do not help You up. You are the neighbor who has “sinned”, our friend who has “failed”. You are our loved one who is so tired of not seeing our love. We have not helped You up.
Pause...
Leader: Let us pray.
All: Lord, open our eyes. We are too engrossed in our own problems – or perhaps we are even happy to see some people fall, never realizing that it is You who fall.
Lord, in this day of grace, shed Your light on our every action. Help us to see You in those who have fallen. Help others to see You in me when I fall.
Sing: O, how sad, and sore distressed, Now was she, that Mother Blessed Of the sole-begotten One.
FOURTH STATION
JESUS MEETS HIS MOTHER
Leader: We adore You, O Christ and we praise You.
All: Because by Your Holy Cross, You have redeemed the world.
Leader: You give us Your Mother to be our own. She comes to meet us in You. In Your agony, she sees our pain, and she accepts us as her own. Now she stands by our side, so many times unnoticed.
Pause...
Leader: Let us pray.
All: Lord, open our eyes. We do not realize the power of her love, for she loves us in spite of what we are doing to You.
Lord, shed the light of Your truth on our every action. Help us to cling to Your Mother and be strengthened by her love for You.
Sing: Woe-begone, twith heart’s prostration Mother meek, the bitter passion Saw she of her glorious Son.
FIFTH STATION
SIMON HELPS JESUS TO CARRY THE CROSS
Leader: We adore You, O Christ and we praise You.
All: Because by Your Holy Cross, You have redeemed the world.
Leader: Jesus, it is our Cross You carry, and yet we complain when we are asked to help You carry it. We have built this Cross out of our own anger, our fears, our refusal to show love. And now that we see what we have built, we reject it.
Pause...
Leader: Let us pray.
All: Lord, open our eyes. Help us to see ourselves as really are – sinners – loved so much You.
Lord, on this day of our salvation, shed the light of Your truth on our every action. Help us to see that our problems are so often our own making. Help us to help one another carry the Cross.
Sing: Who could mark, the tears refraining, Christ’s dear Mother uncomplaining, In so great a sorrow bowed?
SIXTH STATION
VERONICA WIPES THE FACE OF JESUS
Leader: We adore You, O Christ and we praise You.
All: Because by Your Holy Cross, You have redeemed the world.
Leader: How often do we have the courage to speak out as Christians? Do the people we meet know by our actions that we believe in Your message of love? Or are we just another one of the crowd – no different from those who never knew You?
Pause...
Leader: Let us pray.
All: Lord, open our eyes. Help us to see ourselves as other see us. Forgive us for not making You present to the people we come in contact with each day.
Lord, shed the light of Your truth on our every action. Strengthen us to be different as we prove by our lives that we believe in You.
Sing: Who, unmoved, behold her languish, Underneath His cross of anguish, Mid the fierce, unpitying crowd?
SEVENTH STATION
JESUS FALLS THE SECOND TIME
Leader: We adore You, O Christ and we praise You.
All: Because by Your Holy Cross, You have redeemed the world.
Leader: Life can be so exhausting. It would be easier not to get involved with other people. After all, everyone is tired. We all fall – time and again. But we are so involved with our own wounds that we never notice that someone else is bleeding.
Pause...
Leader: Let us pray.
All: Lord, open our eyes to see Your people. Show us the joy of helping someone else to stand tall – even as we ourselves would like to stand.
Lord, shed the light of Your truth on our every action. Help us to see that if we make no move to help our dallen brother or sister, we are the fallen ones.
Sing: For His people’s sins rejected, She her Jesus, unprotected, Saw with thorns, with scourges rent.
EIGHTH STATION
JESUS CONSOLES THE WOMEN OF JERUSALEM
Leader: We adore You, O Christ and we praise You.
All: Because by Your Holy Cross, You have redeemed the world.
Leader: Jesus, the women wept for You; it was the only thing they could do. We weep today. We weep for those who carry the Cross of poverty, of unfair discrimination. But do we step out? Do we speak out? Do we try to help? Or do we only weep?
Pause...
Leader: Let us pray.
All: Lord, open our eyes. Help us to weep for Your people, but forgive us if all we do is weep. Give us the courage to act. Lord, in this day of our salvation, shed the light of Your truth on our every action. Help us to do good for the right reason. Help us see the good that only we can do.
Sing: Saw her Son from judgment taken, He belov’d in death forsaken Till His Spirit forth He sent.
NINTH STATION
JESUS FALLS THE THIRD TIME
Leader: We adore You, O Christ and we praise You.
All: Because by Your Holy Cross, You have redeemed the world.
Leader: Why do You fall again, Jesus? Why do You remind us of the weight of the Cross? Get up Lord, for if You do not go on, we are lost. It is guilt that weighs You down. Get up, Lord We do not like to feel guilt.
Pause...
Leader: Let us pray.
All: Lord, open our eyes. Show us our guilt, but show us our salvation, too. Our guilt we cannot face. Show us our sin, but let us know the joy of our healing.
Lord, shed the light of Your truth on our every action. Fill us with compassion for Your people, for in facing our own guilt, we can better understand our neighbors’ failings.
Sing: Fount of love and Holy sorrow, Mother, may my spirit borrow Somewhat of thy woe profound.
TENTH STATION
JESUS IS STRIPPED OF HIS GARMENTS
Leader: We adore You, O Christ and we praise You.
All: Because by Your Holy Cross, You have redeemed the world.
Leader: It hurts to be stripped of our possessions. We want to hang on to things as though to prove our worth. We want success as though success would save us. Yet we stripped You of Your last possession- the robe Your Mother made You.
Pause...
Leader: Let us pray
All: Lord, open our eyes. Help us to see the false values that rule our lives. Forgive us for placing false gods before You.
Lord, shed the light of Your truth on our every action. Help us to see our true worth in You. For even as You hang naked on the Cross, You are our King.
Sing: Unto Christ, with pure emotion, Raise my contrite heart’s devotion, Love to read in every wound.
ELEVENTH STATION
JESUS IS NAILED TO THE CROSS
Leader: We adore You, O Christ and we praise You.
All: Because by Your Holy Cross, You have redeemed the world.
Leader: How can they say we did it? We are nice people and would never nail anyone to a Cross… would we? And yet, we take pleasure in getting even. We gloat when an “enemy” is down. How often do we say, “He asked for it?” And how often are we angry at someone we love? What if we had been there- on Calvary?
Pause...
Leader: Let us pray.
All: Lord, open our eyes. It is You we have ridiculed in Your people. It is You we have been angry with. It is we who have driven the nails. Lord, have mercy.
Lord, in this day of our salvation, shed the light of Your truth on our every action. Helps us to see that what we do to Your people, we do to You. Daily we nail You to the Cross.
Sing: Those five wounds on Jesus smitten, Mother! In my heart be written, Deep as in thine own they be.
TWELFTH STATION
JESUS IS RAISED UPON THE CROSS, AND DIES
Leader: We adore You, O Christ and we praise You.
All: Because by Your Holy Cross, You have redeemed the world.
Leader: He is dead. He did it for us, hat all of us might live. But do we really understand? If we do, why do we go on killing? Abortion, murder, drunken driving – we have so many ways to kill. Then there is the living death of knowing no one cares. A lifetime is a long time to hang on a Cross of loneliness.
Pause...
Leader: Let us pray.
All: Lord, we have seen enough. Forgive us for not loving. Forgive us for not caring. Forgive us for not sharing ourselves with those who need us.
Lord, shed the light of Your truth on our every action. Help us to see that we – all of us – have sinned.
Sing: Thou, my Savior’s Cross who bearest, Thou thy Son’s rebuke who sharest, Let me share them both with thee!
THIRTEENTH STATION
JESUS IS TAKEN DOWN FROM THE CROSS
Leader: We adore You, O Christ and we praise You.
All: Because by Your Holy Cross, You have redeemed the world.
Leader: Finally, Marry has Him back – dead. All these years, she has watched in silence while He tried to tell us something we did not want to hear. And now we give Him back to her. She does not say a word to reproach us; after all, we are her children now. But look at what we did to her Firsborn.
Pause...
Leader: Let us pray.
All: Lord, we cannot look. It hurts too much to see what sin did. Help us to look inside ourselves. Help us to see what sin is still doing.
Lord, shed the light of Your truth on our every action. Help us to face the fact that much of what we do is not easy to look at in the light of Your love.
Sing: In the Passion of my Maker, Be my sinful soul partaker, Weep till death, and keep with thee.
FOURTEENTH STATION JESUS IS LAID IN THE TOMB
Leader: We adore You, O Christ and we praise You.
All: Because by Your Holy Cross, You have redeemed the world.
Leader: How often we are separated from those we love. A relationship dies – killed by our anger. A love dies – slowly – from lack of nourishment. But always there is hope for new life – a re-kindling of love. Physical death is the one true reality of life, and yet we still hope. We still believe in the power of love to re-kindle itself. He has given us the gift of faith. We know His is forever.
Pause...
Leader: Let us pray.
All: Lord, You have opened our eyes to hope. In our hope, Your love lives forever and in Your love, You live among Your people. Thanks be to God.
Lord, let the light of Your love go before us. In this light we follow the way of Your Cross. In this love we are led to resurrection.
Sing: Mine with thee be that sad station, There to watch the great Salvation Wrought upon th’atoning Tree.
Leader: Let us pray.
ALL: O good Jesus, we will not turn aside from Your footsteps, You who came so humble to this earth. Listen to our prayer and take away the blindness of our sins, that we may see the glory of Your face in the peace of Your eternal Kingdom. Give us Your Light. Show us Your Way, the Way that we should walk. Amen.
Leader: In honor of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, let us pray: Our Father…, Hail Mary…, Glory Be…
And for the intentions of the Holy Father, we pray: Our Father…, Hail Mary…, Glory Be…
Leader: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
All: Amen.
Leader: Let us pray.
ALL: O good Jesus, we will not turn aside from Your footsteps, You who came so humble to this earth. Listen to our prayer and take away the blindness of our sins, that we may see the glory of Your face in the peace of Your eternal Kingdom. Give us Your Light. Show us Your Way, the Way that we should walk. Amen.
Leader: In honor of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, let us pray: Our Father…, Hail Mary…, Glory Be…
And for the intentions of the Holy Father, we pray: Our Father…, Hail Mary…, Glory Be…
Leader: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
All: Amen.
