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The Stations of the Cross two-thousand and twenty Retreat

meditations by the monks of st. benedict’s abbey Introduction

The life of the monk is privileged to have constant contact with the Word of God, several times a day drinking in the sweetness of Scripture in both the liturgies and private . The texts assigned to these Stations of the Cross were the fruit of our living the monastic life- a life given to “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34). Christ Himself invites all Christians to encounter Him in the sacred text. One of the most poignant moments of this invitation comes after His resurrection, when appeared to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. They expressed their disappointment, their seemingly unrealized hope that He would have been the one to redeem Israel. The Lord then explained to them, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, that it was necessary that the Christ should suffer condemnation, mockery and death upon a cross, and so enter into His glory. It is our hope that these meditations on the Stations of the Cross, drawn from the scriptures of the Old and New Testament, will accompany you through these days of crisis along the path of suffering chosen and trodden by Christ Himself, so that we may together follow Him who makes all things new.

2 St. Benedict’s Abbey How to Pray the Stations of the Cross

Here at the abbey we pray the stations in the walnut grove north of the monastery where the ones photographed below are found. On the evening of we begin at 7 p.m.

One way you can enter into this event where you are is by taking a walk with your household in your neighborhood and picking places to stop and pray at each station. Like the first way of the cross, it is a sign to the world of our hope, and a sign of contradiction. You may be misunderstood, just as the first way was misunderstood by almost all who witnessed it except our Lady and the few disciples who remained, but in silence we keep our gaze on the One who changes us, who saves us, Jesus Christ.

Another way to pray them is in your own home, picking a place for each station. You can create a special place for each with a cross, title and number, a lit candle, and perhaps a significant object (e.g. a cloth for Station VI, Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus). If there are children in your household they can be invited to be in charge of creating these stations earlier in the day. In this way we acknowledge that in we are asking Him for the grace to enter into this event of our salvation in our own heart and our own home today.

The Stations of the Cross

Begin by making the .

LEADER: God of power and mercy, in love you sent your Son that we might be cleansed of sin and live with you forever. Bless us as we gather to reflect on His suffering and death that we may learn from His example the way we should go. We ask this through that same Christ, our Lord.

ALL: Amen

Before each station pray

LEADER: We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.

ALL: Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

LEADER reads the station and the scripture verse.

READER reads the meditation.

ALL sing the verse while walking to the next station. (Listen here for tune).

The Way of the Cross 3 I. Jesus is Condemned to Death

They arise, the kings of the earth; Princes plot against the Lord and His Anointed.

- Psalm 2:2 -

One could never spend too much time contemplating the humility of God captured in this Station. The absurdity! The innocent Judge is condemned by guilty sinners. He came to free captives, and we imprisoned Him. He wants to bring life, and we killed Him.

My Jesus, I am complicit in this condemnation. Not only am I responsible for your death by my sins, but I often order my life as if I were in charge. I choose to follow my own rule rather than let you direct my days. I mistakenly think that I know what is best for me even though your thoughts are so far above my thoughts and your ways above my ways.

Many things contend to sit on the throne of my heart, but there is room for only one King. My Jesus, I surrender into your hands every detail of my life and even my life itself.

At the cross her station keeping, Stood the mournful Mother weeping, Close to Jesus to the last.

4 St. Benedict’s Abbey II. Jesus Carries His Cross

Take My yoke upon yourself and learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest. For, My yoke is easy and My burden light.

- Matthew 11: 29 & 30 -

The cross is placed upon Jesus’ shoulders. He must carry it all the way to . This is the Hour to which His whole life was pointed. This was the Father’s will for Him, if He were to be our Savior, the one who would carry the burden of our sins, to become the perfect sacrifice acceptable to the Father, and thus reconcile us with God.

Jesus is our leader. To be His disciples, we must be willing to accept the yoke, the burdens and trials, that Jesus gives to us in our daily lives. We are to participate in the same gift of ourselves that Jesus makes of Himself to the Father.

We know that we are on a pilgrimage, and that our true home is with God in another world. Our Baptism reminds us that we share in Jesus’ Passion and Death, as well as in His Resurrection. We humbly and meekly accept our yoke, our burdens, with full confidence that Jesus will never allow us to be overburdened with life’s challenges.

Through her heart, His sorrow sharing, All His bitter anguish bearing, Now at length the sword had passed.

The Way of the Cross 5 III. Jesus Falls the First Time

Come, all you who pass by the way. Look and see whether there is any suffering like My suffering, suffering with which the Lord has afflicted Me on the day of His blazing wrath.

- Lamentations 1:12 -

When times get tough, it is so easy to fall into self-absorption, to say, “Is there any suffering like my suffering;” “No one understands what I’m going through;” “If you had to go through what I was going through…” So too, it is easy to make Jesus a special case: can there be suffering like the suffering of the sinless Lamb of God whose blood was shed for the forgiveness of sins? But if we make Jesus a special case, if we concede that His suffering far surpasses anything we could ever experience, we empty His sacrifice of all its meaning. The Letter to the Hebrews tells us that “we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses.” Jesus’ suffering is redemptive for me precisely because it is like my suffering. The causes may be different, but the feelings of abandonment, loneliness and weakness are the same. By identifying with our suffering, Jesus allows us to rise above it and we are able to recognize that our suffering is what we make it. It can be tragic and absurd, or it can be redemptive and meaningful, if only we recognize that we do not have an exclusive claim on the right to suffer.

Oh, how sad and sore distressed Was that Mother highly blest Of the sole begotten One!

6 St. Benedict’s Abbey IV. Jesus Meets His Afflicted Mother

To what can I compare you, O Daughter ? What example can I show you for your comfort, Virgin Daughter Sion? For, great as the sea is your distress; who can heal you?

- Lamentations 2:13 -

Dear Jesus, as you meet your afflicted Mother on the road to Golgotha, Her presence there reminds you that she was always there for you. Her “yes” resounds through all time and space. In freedom she had said let it be done to me according to your word. (Luke 1:38) As she believed that what was spoken to her by the Lord would be fulfilled, may she intercede for us at this moment, so that we also will have a great trust in you, Jesus.

As I carry my own cross today, help me to unite my life with your life. Never allow me to give in to fear and discouragement, or be lured away by the snares of the evil one. May Our Blessed Mother Mary meet me on the road this day, to console me, to lead me to you, Jesus, to help me in the difficulties of life. May every thought, word and action of mine this day help me to grow in love of you, Jesus, and of my neighbor.

Christ above in torment hangs; She beneath beholds the pangs Of her dying, glorious Son.

The Way of the Cross 7 V. Helps Jesus to Carry His Cross

Look on My right and see: There is not one who takes My part. I have no means of escape, not one who care for My soul.

- Psalm 142 -

The weight of a single tree becomes too much to bear for the One who holds the entire universe in existence. As unbelievable as that statement may sound, true though it is, even more difficult to imagine is how God should need a man’s assistance to accomplish His great act of redemption. St. Simon had no interest in getting involved. He was not quick to volunteer because of the kindness of his heart; rather according to Mark’s account he was “pressed into service” (:21).

However, Mark also names Simon’s two sons, Alexander and Rufus, in such a way as to indicate their prominent status in the Christian Church at the time of Mark’s writing. If Simon’s sons became prominent followers of Jesus they must have learned about Jesus from their father recounting the story of the day, the event, the Man who changed his life forever.

Lord Jesus, Simon’s life was forever changed by this invitation to carry your cross with you. Even though I often rebel against the crosses in my life, today I accept whatever cross your provident love has ordained for me. Jesus, may you not carry your cross alone today. I will carry it with you and I will help others do the same.

Is there one who would not weep, ‘Whelmed in miseries so deep, Christ’s dear Mother to behold?

8 St. Benedict’s Abbey VI. Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now, I know in part; Then, I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood.

- 1 Corinthians 13:12 -

A woman in the crowd, moved by love, came up to Jesus to wipe away the dirt, sweat and blood from His face. Someone steps forward to show Jesus just a little kindness, and He offers her the imprint of His face. Amid so much cruelty and hatred, our humble sister, Veronica, uses her veil to wipe the face of Jesus, fallen on the road, exhausted, carrying the weight of the heavy cross. What a woman of courage and solidarity! Such tenderness, charity, respect, and love she has for Jesus, her Savior. Her gesture went down in history. May we have this tenderness to approach those who suffer and are fallen by the wayside. May we have the courage to stop and manifest attention and solidarity.

Can the human heart refrain From partaking in her pain, In that Mother’s pain untold?

The Way of the Cross 9 VII. Jesus Falls the Second Time

Down I went to the roots of the mountains; The bars of the nether world were closing behind me forever. But, You brought up my life from the pit, O Lord, my God.

- Jonah 2:7 -

Once again, burdened and exhausted by the terrible weight of the cross, Jesus collapses to the ground, crushed by nothing less than our own sins and transgressions. Imagine the terrible pain that must have been in His shoulder, His back, His knees. Yet, this fall, this descent is only a shadow, Much like Jonah, He is to be hurled into an overwhelming sea, a seemingly hopeless netherworld. Yet, Jesus is resolute and determined. He is the Lord who, in His love for every human person, once set His face like stone and resolved to die for their sins in Jerusalem. As God lifted Jonah from the nether world into life, God the Father willed that Jesus be lifted up, to give His life so that we receive life. It is through this cross that weighed so heavily upon Jesus, that God will lift all of us from sin and death and bring us to the presence of Himself and His love.

Bruised, derided, cursed, defiled, She beheld her tender Child, All with bloody scourges rent.

10 St. Benedict’s Abbey VIII. Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem

Consider, and call for the mourning women to come For, a sound of wailing is heard from Zion: How we are ruined!

- Jeremiah 9:17 & 19 -

The women of Jerusalem are reduced to wailing and bitter weeping by what they see happening to Jesus in His passion. Jesus comes and greets them and does not turn away from their grief. He tells them to not weep for Him, for He does the will of the Father. He is doing what mysteriously gives life. He is saying yes to the plan of God for Himself.

He does this for the women when He meets them. He does it for us too. He still says yes and asks us to join Him in that yes. We need His grace to be able to do that. So, seeing our own poverty, we weep for ourselves and beg for the grace for ourselves and for those near us. We ask for the grace, knowing that God gives it to us moment by moment and so we ask Him also for the eyes to see it.

Jesus, give us the grace to hang on to You when You reveal Yourself in all of our circumstances.

For the sins of His own nation, Saw Him hang in desolation Till His spirit forth He sent.

The Way of the Cross 11 IX. Jesus Falls the Third Time

Study the generations long past and understand; has anyone hoped in the Lord and been disappointed? Has anyone persevered in His fear and been forsaken? Has anyone called upon Him and been rebuffed?

- Sirach 2:10 -

A sense of failure, exhaustion, pain shooting through his whole body, the emotional woundedness of having been betrayed by his own people, crying out to the Father for the strength necessary to carry out the task assigned to him, even with help of a stranger, who’s helping him only because he has no choice. He seems to fail to complete the whole reason for his coming into the world – our salvation. And yet, Jesus musters strength from the source of all strength, his Father, to complete the task assigned to him. His love for us does not fail, even when we have already rejected that love.

O sweet Mother! fount of love, Touch my spirit from above, Make my heart with yours accord.

12 St. Benedict’s Abbey X. Jesus is Stripped of His Clothes

I trod them in My anger, and trampled them down in My garments and I stained all My clothes. I looked about, but there was no one to help. How we are ruined!

- Isaiah 63:2 to 5 -

Outside the gate to Joppa, on top the hill Golgotha, It seemed a dream, when they found no seam, Upon nakedness they look. His garments caused unrest, No beauty to be found, the Son of God whipped and bound, Lots would be lain, for the clothes of the slain, The strong hand He forsook. The life they valued less.

Their intent to resent and draw ire, For us who follow, same pill to swallow, To make Him seem worth the slaughter, Ridicule and scorn. The crowd laughed and jeered, as His mother teared, For to die with Him, is to rise from sin, Zion’s most noble daughter. Your own life not to mourn.

Make me feel as you have felt; Make my soul to glow and melt With the love of Christ, my Lord.

The Way of the Cross 13 XI. Jesus is Nailed to the Cross

They tear holes in My hands and My feet, And lay Me in the dust of death. I can count every one of My bones.

- Sirach 2:10 -

Dear Jesus, often I think only of my own little world. How easy it is for me to forget the depths of your love: that you suffered the most painful death possible, out of love for me. As you were nailed to the cross, your was consumed with love for the whole world.

When I am tempted to complain of little inconveniences in life, may I never forget your pain and agony. You, through whom all things were made, were nailed to the Cross. You who healed and restored and forgave, were left to hang between heaven and earth as a common criminal. Even then Lord, your thirst was not for water. You thirsted on the cross for souls to turn from sin and return to you.

Jesus, transform my heart by your heart. Take away my stony heart, and give me a new heart. May the glorious nail marks in your hands and feet remind us of your love for me, and your invitation that I love you, and all those I meet this day.

Holy Mother, pierce me through, In my heart each wound renew Of my Savior crucified.

14 St. Benedict’s Abbey XII. Jesus Dies on the Cross

I led you out of the land of Egypt, and you prepared a cross for Me. I opened the Red Sea before you and you opened My side with a lance. I gave you a royal scepter, and you have given Me a .

- From the Reproaches of Good Friday -

It is finished. Under darkened skies, Jesus has breathed His last. Up to this last moment, it seemed that Jesus’ suffering had been surrounded by nothing but mockery and cruelty from the very people He came to save. And yet, in His last glimpses of the world Jesus must have been consoled to see that select few who were still with Him, His mother along with Mary, the wife of Clopas, Mary Magdalen, and John, the beloved disciple.

As we meditate on the last moments and death of our Lord, let us ask ourselves where we would be found in this scene. Have we betrayed Jesus, abandoned Him with most of the Apostles, followed Him at a distance only to deny Him, or are we faithful like the women and John, bearing with Him in His suffering and death? Let us pray for the courage to remain with Him in His passion that we might also bring consolation and compassion to the Lord in His final moments.

Let me share with you His pain, Who for all our sins was slain, Who for me in torments died.

The Way of the Cross 15 XIII. Jesus is Taken Down from the Cross

He has stripped Me from My glory, And taken the crown from My head. He breaks Me down on every side, And I am gone

- Job 19:9 & 10 -

The son of God’s body was laid before the instrument of death, defeated. Standing before the Covid-19 virus we look at the many bodies defeated. No more struggle. Yes, washed clean and mourned, but defeated.

So seemed Christ as His body was taken down from the instrument of death. The symbol of power and intimidation used by the Romans outside major cities. A reminder of justice and punishment that awaits all who break the law.

The shadow of that death and judgment hung over the Jewish people long before the armies of , Greece, and Persia. In fact, it hung over all of us. A different tower of wood, that bore fruit and our destruction looms over humanity. Surely this wooden cross was the same.

But the fruit that came from this tree was the body of Jesus, of whom it was said “No man ever spoke like this man!” (John 7:46) And what did He say of His body? The body that lay before this tree? He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him…he who eats this...will live for ever.” (John 6:56, 58)

So, let us judge the tree by its fruit. Let us bury it and see what grows.

Let me mingle tears with thee, Mourning Him who mourned for me, All the days that I may live:

16 St. Benedict’s Abbey XIV. Jesus is Laid in the Tomb

O My people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them. Then, you shall know that I am the Lord. O My people! I have promised it, and I will do it, says the Lord.

- Ezechiel 37:13 & 14 -

Where have You gone to? What has just happened? You, who were so alive and active, healing the sick and preaching words of consolation, are buried and sealed behind a large stone. I remember when another stone was rolled away and You commanded, “Lazarus, come forth!” Who is to say that to You now? I do not have the voice nor the authority. There is only One who can say those words.

“On the third day I shall arise,” You said. Therefore, I wait. I wait and grieve, waiting for that Third Day, when all shall be changed in a twinkling of an eye. Then I shall really know who You are and who I am. This time I live in— these strange and difficult times of sickness and pain and death—is an in-between time. I fear so much, and yet I cling to hope. Hope for resurrection and new life. Let me keep my eyes fixed on that hope, on You, and not be afraid, for that Third Day of Resurrection is almost here.

By the cross with you to stay, There with you to weep and pray, This I ask of you to give.

Close with the following prayer.

LEADER: Lord Jesus Christ, your passion and death is the sacrifice that unites earth and heaven and reconciles all people to you. May we who have faithfully reflected on these mysteries follow in your steps and so come to share your glory in heaven where you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit one God, for ever and ever. ALL: Amen.

Conclude in silence. If possible, spend the rest of the evening in silence, except to pray Compline.

The Way of the Cross 17 Notes

18 St. Benedict’s Abbey The images used in this booklet are from Giotto di Bondone’s (1266-1337) series of frescoes on the life of Christ on the walls of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, .

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The Way of the Cross 19