EASTER STATIONS OF THE RESURRECTION AS REFLECTED IN THE TRADITIONAL STATIONS OF THE CROSS.

STATION ONE JESUS IS CONDEMNED TO DEATH JESUS IS RESURRECTED I, your JESUS, the NEW MAN, the NEW ADAM come to make you a new creation. My body no longer reflects the brokenness of man’s sin. My wounds now shine with glory. My wounds glory with heavenly love, and I long for you to share in my glory. As with My apostles I give you My peace, and kiss you with My assuring love. I ask you to believe in My resurrection, and want you to live in My resurrection. As Christians you are invited to walk in My resurrected life, walking your new Calvary road to Glory. These next steps will teach you how to live in the Resurrection and no longer be bound by this world. Trust in My love for you.

STATION TWO JESUS TAKES UP THE CROSS EMBRACING CHRIST’S HUMANITY, YOUR HUMANITY I, your Jesus, long to carry you, and unite you to Me as My bride, for Glory. For Me to carry you, you must embrace your own humanity with new minds and hearts. You have far too long lived in a dualistic mindset. You have been denying your bodies through intellectualism and Phariseeism, and/or have just lived by your flesh and emotions satisfying only what the body craves. You are invited to an integrated love of body/soul, of intellect/heart. Only united to Christ’s heart and mind can you truly find this integration, and freedom. Your bodies are Christ’s cross, and your cross. You are invited to embrace your cross so to find full integration with Christ.

STATION THREE JESUS FALLS THE FIRST TIME HEALING THE EFFECTS OF OUR FIRST FALLS TO SIN. God the Father has created you to reflect His perfect beauty. He delights in you. Even though you have been redeemed in Baptismal love you are still affected by concupiscence. Those first falls in your childhood have great affect throughout your life. They leave wounds that often rear their ugly head. You are invited to go back in your heart and memories to those first moments and renounce the sin, and with the authority of Christ surrender them to the Father. You must choose to live in the beauty and delight of the Father, and not be overwhelmed by your weakness. The Father’s love for you is greater than any sin you can commit. Trust in His love for you. ‘Rise, take up your flesh/cross, we go toward the Heavenly Jerusalem.’

STATION FOUR JESUS MEETS HIS MOTHER, MARY MARY’S MOTHERLY LOVE: AN INVITATION TO SPOUSAL LOVE. Outside of God your first knowledge of love is through your mother. You all seek a motherly embrace, touch, or loving word, when times are difficult. Jesus also sought His mother in His deepest need. Mary is your eternal Mother who loves you with a perfect love. She teaches you how to embrace the love of God from her conception, in the annunciation, in the birth of her Son Jesus, in the raising of her Son, and now in assisting her Son in His passion. Jesus invites Mary and you to be His bride to walk with Him to spousal union on Calvary’s hill. No love has meaning unless it is sacrificial. Christ’s love is perfect. He pours out His whole life for you His bride, and invites you to imitate Him in His love. STATION FIVE SIMON HELPS JESUS CARRY THE CROSS CHRISTIAN COMPANIONS Satan’s deceit is to convince you that you are isolated from God in your sin, and alone. You are never alone. Your Christian journey is filled with Simons who love you. You are helped, nourished, loved, and encouraged by so many other Christians who have walked the same road you are walking. Remember, it is easier to stop breathing than not sin. All of mankind, and every Christian, continues to struggle with falling from grace. Only in heaven will there be no sin. The challenge is always to take heart, keep running the race, and to seek and accept assistance when it is offered. You have family, friends, your faith and social communities, the entire communion of saints, your guardian and entire host of angels, and certainly Mary your mother, and the Holy Trinity to turn to in your need. The Christian response to sin is to always turn to My MERCY. YOU ARE NOT ALONE!

STATION SIX VERONICA WIPES THE FACE OF JESUS THE FACE OF CHRIST As Veronica received the beautiful face of Christ you have received it too. From your very creation His face is imprinted on your heart, and in your mind. God’s face is your first visual sight and your first love. Keep your sight on the face of Christ. He is the eternal goal you must keep focused on. Nourish the image of His face through prayer and the sacraments or you will lose your sight. Love changes you into the image of each other. Your life and love for Christ must reflect Him to the world, who has forgotten His beautiful face.

STATION SEVEN JESUS FALLS THE SECOND TIME THROWING OUR LIVES ON HIS MERCY Christ’s great burden is that you do not allow him to carry you and heal you. Life is filled with successes and failures. Christ’s heart breaks not so much over your sin, but in your not surrendering your sins and life to him. It is in growing through your failures that you grow the strongest. A broken bone after it is healed is strongest at its break. Christ’s love is stronger than any sin you can commit. Let Christ be the glue and healing in your brokenness. In your healing He gives you His Great Strength. God longs to take your burdens unto Himself. You too will find that other’s sins affect you and weigh you down. You must let your sins fall upon Christ, to have the strength you need when other’s sins fall on you.

STATION EIGHT JESUS MEETS THE WEEPING WOMEN TEARS OF JOY The love of Christ brings us spiritual tears of joy and happiness. Your tears of true sorrow for your sins must always turn to joy in thanksgiving and delight because you are redeemed. Never let sin discourage you. Everyone make mistakes. Long for the redemption of all! Allow your tears to be for the sinner who is lost. Trust in God’s love for you, and His Mercy. There is too much sadness in our world, and not enough joy in the Lord. God longs for you to live in His delight, and to know His delight for you.

STATION NINE JESUS FALLS THE THIRD TIME DO NOT SIN AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT, BUT LIVE IN HIS LOVE. I your God have so much love and so many gifts waiting for you in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is My wedding gift, My Pentecost gift, to you. Your very creation is a gift from Me, and I long to fill you with even greater gifts. My love for you is so great. To refuse My Spirit’s gift leaves Me with great sadness. It is to refuse Love and Salvation itself. You were created to be the Holy Spirit’s temple: your mind is created to be united to My Divine Mind; your heart is created to be united to my Divine Heart; your body is created to be united to My Resurrected body. All the Holy Spirit’s gifts and charisms are yours. Ask and you shall receive. My Love only desires to give, and know the pleasure of your love.

STATION TEN JEUS IS STRIPPED THE GLORY OF MAN FULLY REVEALED As I stood fully naked, revealed before the world, My glory shone. Only living in redemption can you understand the full glory of your body, in its true nakedness. To look on each other, as Adam and Eve saw each other, in true purity, is the Christian’s way. Adam gazed on Eve, and delighted in her, saying, ‘this at last is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh’. God delights in you too when you reveal your true heart to Him. This is the deep beauty of Confession. Confession helps you to be true to yourself, standing before God in your nakedness, in humility, truth, and trusting love. This is your deepest beauty. In surrendering your heart to Me I create you anew in an even deeper beauty and delight even more in you. If this is so, it is crazy to even consider staying away from confession. Resurrected spousal love desires to reveal everything to the Beloved. LOVE ITSELF longs to know you deeper, so that you can know LOVE ITSELF even deeper.

STATION ELEVEN JESUS IS NAILED TO THE CROSS BEING EMBRACE BY GOD Christ is nailed to your body, for you are the Cross. He is the eternal embrace of love. He never lets you go. This cruciformed embrace is both an agony and an ecstasy. Sometimes that loving embrace is an invitation to union with Christ in His suffering. Suffering is part of the human condition. As Christians you must learn to cling to the Lord even stronger in these difficult times. Christ said, “I am with you always, to the end of time.” You must trust in God’s promise. The nailing to the Cross can be compared to your baptismal and wedding promises. (In freedom I choose you. I will be faithful to you forever. I will be always open to the gift of children, the Holy Spirit, and life itself.) There is no getting off the Cross after making these promises. Though you often break your promises because of your weakness, Christ is true to his eternally promises. Trust in His promises and He will enable you to keep your promises of love.

STATION TWELVE JESUS DIES ON THE CROSS EUCHARISTIC CONSUMMATION Christ’s total outpouring of his love on the Cross has given you the Sacraments. All the Sacraments are rooted in marital love. They are embraces of flesh and blood. My death on the Cross is the transcendent gift of Eucharistic love. Eucharist is your doorway to heaven. Eucharist not only allows you to touch heaven, it brings heaven to you. Eucharist is the embrace that invites you to die to yourself so to be united to LOVE Himself. Eucharistic consummation unites you to the entire host and communion of heaven, the Trinity, the angels, and all the saints. It enriches you and ennobles you to love as the host of heaven loves. In it you are invited to surrender your very life to save the world. All creation groans awaiting your redemption. Eucharist helps you to be in touch with this deep ache, so you may also long for the redemption of all people.

STATION THIRTEEN JESUS IS TAKEN DOWN FROM THE CROSS AND LAID IN MARY’S ARMS HEALED IN THE WOMB OF THE CHURCH Mary has always been considered the ICON of the Church. She is the Mother, the Teacher of how to receive love. She is the vessel who remains always open to receive LOVE, and then on receiving shows you how to give Love away. Like the Christ, who was placed in her arms, so are you placed in her arms. As Christians you must trust in Mary’s maternal love for you. She is the means through which all of mankind received Heaven’s gift. She is the means through which you receive Sacramental Love. Return to Her womb for healing and grace. Go to where Christ is always present, in the heart and womb of Mary. She, the Queen of Heaven, longs to present you beautifully to the Trinity. Mary kisses your wounds and brokenness, as the Church kisses you with her Sacraments, so to heal you and make you shine with heavenly radiance.

STATION FOURTEEN JESUS IS LAID IN THE TOMB NO REST FOR THE DEAD In the tomb Jesus did not rest. He was ever active gathering all of the redeemed who were sleeping awaiting the opening of the gates of Heaven. Take time now to reflect on how Divine Love has worked to redeem you. You can do NOTHING without God, except sin. You can be on your knees for the rest of your life just thanking God for letting you blink, and it would not be enough. Grow in an ever deeper gratitude for how Love has saved you. When you have gained strength, like Peter, go and encourage your brothers and sisters. The work of redemption is now in your hands. I am with you. Tell others your gospel story of how I have saved you, that they may return to Me. Be confident in My Love for you, so that others may gain confidence in My Love. Heaven waits for you. It is only a blink away.

STATION FIFTEEN THE RESSURECTION HEAVEN’S GLORY There is more joy in heaven over one sinner’s redemption. All of Heaven longs for each soul’s entering into glory. All the angels, and the Communion of Saints, work tirelessly assisting God in the redemption of mankind. Heaven is your destiny. It is worth the battle. Keep it always in your sight. I, the Father, and the Spirit ache in our longing for you, just as your ache is a longing for Us. It is your choice, and We wait for your YES. Live in the world as if you already live in the Kingdom. Know Our delight for you, and live in that joy, for the Kingdom of God is among you.