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.


LOOKING AT JESUS

Jesus, you are almost there, almost to Calvary. The soldiers keep pushing you beyond your control and you fall once again: the third time.

Jesus, you are experiencing the push of people who don’t stop to realize what they are doing. You are experiencing the cruelty that happens, when people just want to get a job done without thinking about how it effects the people they are pushing. The soldiers aren’t aware of you. They just want to get you to Calvary as soon as possible. They just keep pushing you along this way of the cross and you fall the third time.

9th STATION PRAYER – AGAIN

Lord, in this moment of prayer, I have two prayers: First of all, “Father, forgive me, for I don’t know what I am doing.”

Secondly, “Lord, that I might see” - that I might see how cruel I can be in the way I treat others in the rush and push of life and that I can rise above that cruelty.

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.

LOOKING AT JESUS

Jesus, you finally arrive at the place of the skull: Calvary. The soldiers strip you of your clothes to prepare you for your execution on the cross. You stand there like a sheep being sheared of its wool. You stand there like a lamb being prepared for the slaughter.

Jesus, you stand there humiliated, completely helpless, like a person who has been abused or raped by another. You stand there silently. Are you also filled with silence within? Are you at the stage of being so weak, that you just want to get all this over with as soon as possible?

10th STATION PRAYER – STRIPPED

Lord, I stand here naked with all my weaknesses showing. I see myself as I really am, stripped of all my defenses.

I stand here today praying for the gift of being so sorry for the way I have treated others, that I won’t treat them that way tomorrow.

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.

LOOKING AT JESUS

Jesus, you are nailed to a cross. You are held down in place. A man with a hammer slams a nail through your hands and into the wood of the cross. How could anyone do such a horrible thing to another? How could anyone nail another to a cross?

Jesus, you are then lifted up, nailed to a cross, high above the crowd. Your executioners are like fishermen showing a crowd the fish that they have just caught. You hang there cringing, twisting, bleeding. You slowly bleed to death in this horrible method of killing called crucifixion.

11th STATION PRAYER – NAILED

Lord, I look at you nailed to the cross and ask pardon for all the times I have blamed others for the mistakes that I have done myself.

Lord, I look at you lifted high up on the cross. I see you hanging there on the tree of good and evil. I ask you to give me a true knowledge of the good and evil in myself. Unlike Adam and Eve, help me to stop behind blaming others for the sins I have committed.

TWELFTH STATION
JESUS DIES ON THE CROSS

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

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

LOOKING AT JESUS
Jesus, you hang high on the cross transfigured before us. On this new mount of Transfiguration called Calvary, the vision of you, the Suffering One, can’t be hidden. The whole world sees the cross. Everyone suffers. Everyone deals with dying words. Everyone has to deal with death.

Jesus, you hang there on the cross talking about forgiveness and feelings of being forsaken, talking about thirsting and taking care of each other, talking about paradise and letting go.

Jesus, you finally die into your Father’s hands. You go into the place of darkness and death, trusting in the promise of Resurrection and new life.

12th STATION PRAYER – CRUCIFIED

Lord Jesus, give me the strength to die to myself each day in order to bring new life to others.

Lord Jesus, give me the strength to trust in your Father, when it comes my turn to die.

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.

LOOKING AT JESUS

They take out the nails and then they take Jesus down from the cross. Mary holds him. She is not a statue made of marble or stone. She is flesh and tears and sorrow. She holds her dead son, Jesus, the blessed fruit of her womb. The sword of sorrow twists once again in her heart.

Thank God she is not alone. First of all, there are the women friends of Jesus, the women who have been faithful up to the end. Then there is Nicodemus, the man who came to Jesus in the night. He is there in this night of sorrow. Next there is Joseph of Arimathea. He went to Pilate and arranged for Jesus’ burial. Lastly, there is John, another close friend of Jesus. He is the one Jesus asked to take care of his mother after his death. They all stand there trying to help one another in this place of horror - the place of the skull: Calvary.

13th STATION PRAYER – PRESENCE

Lord Jesus, be with us in our moments of tragedy:
when we have to deal with sickness,
when we have to deal with death,
when we have to deal with helping others in their moments of sorrow.

FOURTEENTH STATION
JESUS IS PLACED IN THE TOMB

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

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

LOOKING AT JESUS

Jesus, you are buried in a new tomb. You are locked in by a big stone. And as you cried and called out to Lazarus in his tomb, your Father cries out to you, “Jesus, come forth.”

And the echo of the Father is heard throughout the halls and hills of eternity. “Amen! Come Lord Jesus!” Resurrection! Alleluia! Jesus returns to the Father in glory. There is a Heavenly Palm Sunday parade down through the streets of eternity! Resurrection and Ascension together. The Son returns to the Father. Bring out the finest robes and put them on him, “because this son of mine who was dead has come back to life.” Let the banquet, the music and the dancing begin. “And the Father will dance.” Bring in your older brother. Go out to highways and byways and invite all your sisters and brothers into the eternal banquet.

Resurrection! Alleluia! Jesus is given the name, “Lord,” a name above every other name. Jesus is Lord! The Son, who emptied himself, is once again filled with the fullness of God. Alleluia! “Amen! Come Lord Jesus.”

14th STATION PRAYER – RESURRECTION

Lord, don’t let me stop at Good Friday. Help me to move toward Easter.

Call to me, as you called to Lazarus when he was in the grave, “Come forth.”

Lord, stand on the shore of my life, especially when I have the feeling that I have worked the whole night long and caught nothing.

Invite me to the banquet of life. Amen! Let me to come to you, Lord Jesus.

STEVE

I forgot that I asked him,
but he remembered.

“Remember last year
when you asked me
why I am always smiling?
Well, I’ve been thinking
about that for months now
and I came up with an answer.
It’s this: ‘I am able to receive
the body and blood of Christ. Amen.’”

© Andy Costello,

Reflections, 2009