Stations

We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you
because, by your holy cross, you have redeemed the world.

1st: Jesus is condemned to death

You suffered for us, O blessed Jesus.  It was our sins that condemned you to death.  Grant that we may obtain your mercy and pardon through repentance.

        

          

2nd: Jesus carries his cross

O Jesus, grant us the ability to embrace the difficulties of our life.
Make us ever ready to take up our cross and follow you.

          

          

3rd: Jesus falls the first time

O Jesus, you bore the heavy burden of the cross for our sins.
May your suffering make us watchful and keep us from sin.

          

          

4th: Jesus meets his mother

O Jesus, have compassion on us and give us a share in Mary’s intercession.
O Mary intercede for us that we may find our way back to God.

          

          

5th: Simon helps carry the cross

O Lord Jesus, may it be our privilege to bear our cross.
May we rejoice if we should be counted worthy to suffer for your name’s sake.

          

          

6th: Veronica wipes the face of Jesus

O Jesus, may the thought of your suffering move us with deep compassion.
Kindle in our hearts a more fervent love for you.
May your image be engraved in our minds until we are completely yours.

          

          

7th: Jesus falls the second time

O Jesus, how often have you mourned us by our repeated falls into sin.
May we choose not to offend you.

          

          

8th: Jesus consoles the women

O Jesus, we mourn for you and for ourselves
Teach us to be more like you.

          

          

9th: Jesus falls the third time

O Jesus, we ask that you pardon our frequent relapses into sin.
May the thought of your suffering help us be our best.

          

          

10th: Jesus is stripped of his garments

O Jesus, strip us of all false esteem, conceit, and pride and make us humble
so that we can share your glory in the life to come.

          

          

11th: Jesus is nailed to the cross

O Jesus, nailed to the cross, fasten our hearts to the cross
so that we may be united with you.

          

          

12th: Jesus dies on the cross

O Jesus, we devoutly embrace your saving cross on which you died
so that we may have eternal life.
We honor your cross and lovingly accept our own.

          

          

13th: Jesus is taken down from the cross

O Mary, your grief must have been great as your son was put to death.
By his death and resurrection we have become children in Christ.
Help us be like your son, Jesus.

          

          

14th: Jesus is laid in the tomb

Lord, your suffering is over.  Sin, death, and hell have been conquered.
Be the King of my heart.  I surrender myself to your holy will.
I am yours.  May your kingdom come.

          

          

We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you
because, by your holy cross, you have redeemed the world.

Contact information

Stations prayers are based on Reflections on the Stations of the Cross (B-8/15) from the St. Jude Shrine, 512 West Saratoga Street, Baltimore, MD 21201-1805.

Pictured stations: (top) St. Cecilia (Los Fresnos, TX), Our Lady of Good Counsel (Brownsville, TX), St. Cecilia (Wisconsin Dells); (bottom) St. Joseph (Sunnyside, WA), St. Luke (Brownsville, TX), and St. Jude Thaddeus (Pharr, TX), respectively.

Prayers

Accept today, Lord, my humble and contrite heart.  Forgive my actions that have caused pain to others.  Show me the way forward that I might act in accordance with your divine and awesome love in all things great and small.  To the praise and glory of your name always, now, and forever (Pittsburg Theological Seminary [PTS]).

Almighty God, soften my heart and let me see the extent to which I have sinned against your holiness and the creatures you love.  Though I can only see pain ahead for now, I accept your judgment and pray that, in your wrath, you will remember mercy (PTS).

Dear God, as we follow Jesus and commit ourselves afresh to living for him in the world, we pray not only for ourselves and others who trust in Jesus— we ask that you will also hear our prayers in behalf of people who do not yet know him.  May we share and show God’s love to all whom you bring our way (PTS).

God, devoted companion, grace us with prayerful resolve so that this might be a fruitful time for each of us, a time of true repentance, reflection, and self-discipline.  May these forty days be for us a pilgrimage into your heart and into deeper solidarity with our sisters and brothers within the human family.  We ask this in your most holy name (Larry Livingston from Unbound).

God, your love for us is deep and mysterious.  In this time of anxiety, bless us with the strength and the wisdom to place our trust in you.  As your son, Jesus, prayed for resolve in the garden, so may we have the resolve to endure our current trials.  As he sacrificed his life out of love for us, may we dedicate our own sacrifices, big and small, to the care of our world, especially those most in need.  We ask this in your holy name (Livingston).

God, help us to know that you do not forsake us, that your steadfast love, grace, and mercy are always present in our lives.  Let us rejoice and say “God is good” even when to our prayer we do not get the answer we so desperately want (PTS).

God of hope, guide us to look closer, so that we may see the potential of marginalized people.  Strengthen us to walk with those dismissed because of gender, ethnicity, race, religion, age, disability, poverty, or other circumstances.  Help us love, cherish, and believe in them the way you love, cherish, and believe in all your children.  We ask this in your holy name (Loretta Shea Kline).

Gracious and compassionate God, be with us in our lament.  Turn our hearts and our most inmost parts toward seeing anew, toward the suffering that we ourselves experience in this moment, and toward the suffering that others experience because of our shared rebellion.  Bring us this day into the grace of knowing that our suffering is that of others also, that our lament is their lament.  And bring us into the grace of praying that our understanding may become full and of praying for a fullness of understanding that all may share (PTS).

Gracious God, in the midst of busy contemporary life, we pause to listen prayerfully and expectantly to the ancient voice of the psalmist, as across the centuries it speaks to us of your gift of spiritual assurance in our times of uncertainty.  We offer our profound gratitude for your promises given.  In Christ’s name we pray (PTS).

Holy God, at times we feel as though your face is hidden from us.  Speak love to us.  Gather us back.  Show us your face. Remind us that your love carries us, no matter how interesting the times in which we are living (PTS).

Jesus, help us to follow you as you walk the way of the cross.  May we not lose heart in the face of suffering (Franciscan Media [FM]).

Jesus, keep us faithful to you. When our faith is tested, may we not betray your trust.  May we always be your servants, even in times of suffering (FM).

Jesus, may we put faith in you and in the works you do in fulfillment of the Father’s will.  May we help others come to believe in you (FM).

Jesus, lifted up on the cross, draw us to yourself.  As we sign ourselves with your cross, remind us that we belong to you (FM).

Jesus, may our attitude be yours.  Help us to let go of all that keeps us from life with you.  May today for us be a day of salvation (FM).

Jesus, we stand with Mary at the foot of your cross.  Entrust us to her care.  May she ever lead us to you in the heart of the church (FM).

Most gracious and loving God, on the night of Jesus’s birth, his cry burst into song and changed history.  As he grew, his teachings became life-changing songs of love.  When he was tried, crucified, and then died, the world thought his song was silenced.  His resurrection brought forth a glorious song of unending love.  Help us never to forget that, if Christ’s song is to continue, we must do the singing.  May we sing a jubilant song of faith, hope, love, and justice on earth as it is in heaven.  In Christ we pray (PTS).

O Lord Jesus Christ, you died to save us.  You stretched your arms on the cross to embrace the world and gather us as your people in the church.  We rejoice!  May we share our lives with others who love you— and with the world you love so deeply (PTS).

O Lord of infinite forgiveness and love, rouse our hearts to see the holy in the hustle and bustle, to feel the peace in the noise and chaos, and to experience your grace anew (PTS).

Our heavenly Father, you have ordered the universe with physical laws that control the stars above and the world below.  You have given us life and the freedom to choose our path.  Help us to avoid the modern-day plagues that tempt us daily; help us discover the life-giving universal laws found in your word.  Light the way with your love…. (PTS).

Suffering Lord, may we walk with you on the way of the cross.  Strengthen us to let go of selfish ambition and join you in serving others (FM).

When our enemies surround us and plot against us, Lord, rescue us from their clutches and defend us from harm.  Be our strength and our salvation (FM).

March 4, 2020

Lent opens with a piercing sound, that of a trumpet that does not please the ears, but instead proclaims a fast.  It is a loud sound that seeks to slow down our life, which is so fast-paced yet often directionless.  It is a summons to stop— a halt!— to focus on what is essential, to fast from the unnecessary things that distract us.  It is a wake-up call for the soul (Pope Francis).

March 5, 2020

“We could not go to Calvary to offer ourselves with him and thus share in the fruits of his sacrifice, so Jesus brought Calvary to us” (Fr. Lawrence G. Lovasik in The Basic Book of the Eucharist).

March 8, 2020

“Faith isn’t primarily about rituals and rules, but about walking with God” (Alice Camille in We Journey Together, 2020, p. 13).

March 22, 2020

In times such as these, O God, we wait in Lenten apprehension and hope, longing for the preservation of humanity, the restoration of your creation, and the redemption of both through the sustaining and transforming presence of your Holy Spirit in our hearts and in our world (PTS).

March 26, 2020

We are not to be without pain.  Pain is Jesus suffering in us, but we are to look to him for strength and courage.  We are to learn this ability to shoulder our cross by gazing at him and being gentle and humble in heart (Mother Angelica in Suffering and Burnout).

March 27, 2020

Love and sacrifice are not the same thing, but they are inseparable.  To think of Christ and to think of the cross is not the same thing, but the association is so close that the implication is immediate.  Where love has been preached without sacrifice, it has not led to love but to license (Hubert Van Zeller in How to Find God).

April 12, 2020

Our Lord and our God, on this day when we celebrate your resurrection, help us to come to understand that Easter is much more than a one-day celebration each year.  Help all of us to know and understand ourselves as an “image of You.”  And empower us to live out our daily lives as your image to our family, friends, neighbors, strangers, and yes, even, our enemies (PTS).

May 14, 2020

By dying on the cross for us, Jesus showed to what lengths God would go in his love for man; by dying for the glory of the Father, he expressed the depth of the love of man for God.  The cross is the supreme symbol of this love (Luis M. Martinez in True Devotion to the Holy Spirit).

June 22, 2020

“The great secret of a fervent life is to take as our ideal the maxim: Act on all occasions as our Lord would have acted had he been in our place” (Raoul Plus, SJ, in How To Pray Always).

July 28, 2020

“If the Passion of Christ is a way of pain, it is also a path of hope leading to certain victory” (Bl. Alvaro del Portillo).

September 14, 2020

“Glory be to you who laid your cross as a bridge over death, that souls might pass over it from the dwelling of the dead to the dwelling of life” (St. Ephrem).

December 3, 2020

“I believe that I shall be saved… for your mercy is greater than the malice of my sins” (St. Francis Xavier).

June 4, 2022

“How easy it is to die with Jesus on the cross— if one has lived with Jesus on the cross!” (Anna Schäffer).

Links of interest…  Aventine meditations…  Doing the stations of the cross with your kids…  Earthbeat…  Easter/Lent (meditations)…  Forty days at the foot of the cross…  Franciscan Media: Lent with the saints / stations of the cross…  Holy Week: 1st four days / Triduum…  Lent’s reward…  Loving with all our being…  Meditations for Lent…  Pittsburgh Theological Seminary: Advent & Lent devotionals & archive…  Prayer before the crucifix…  Praying Lent…  Resurrection…  Stations of the Cross: about / devotion / FishEaters / for kids (downloadable) / how to do / origin / prayers / printables / puppet show / significance / unique chant / way of the cross…  Veronica’s compassionate act…  Via Crucis at the Colosseum with Pope Francis…

WP posts…  Capuchin church stations…  Christ’s passion…  For all time…  Full circle…  God’s lovely gifts…  Growing pains…  Lady of sorrows…  Lenten reflections…  Lingering memory…  Pilgrim’s journey…  Prayerful ways…  Quiet prayer time…  Sioux chapel stations…  Simple yet profound…  Sorrowful redemption