We’ll be praying our way through Lent two Stations of the Cross at the time, using Stations of the Cross: In Light of the Work of the Society of St Vincent de Paul. These stations, inspired by the work of SVP, uniquely help us to walk not only with Jesus in His Passion and Cross, but also alongside our suffering brothers and sisters.
If you missed the first two Stations, you can catch up here.
3rd Station: Jesus falls the first time
We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you.
Because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
Jesus had been weakened. Then he was forced to carry the heavy cross. It was too much for his frail human body. He fell. Even now, across the centuries, you can almost hear the wails let out by his family and his followers as his battered body hit the ground. They were beginning to feel the pain of Jesus. His pain was becoming their pain. They too had begun to walk the Sorrowful Way, the Via Dolorosa.
Frédéric [Ozanam, founder of the SVP] did not want thanks for his help to those in need. For him, it was a privilege to do the work, and seeing first-hand the sufferings of the poor was a way to strengthen his own faith. Life had to be real. Indeed, he wrote that it would help the faith of many of his fellow Catholics if they had the opportunity to see the difficulties suffered by the poor. In this way their faith would stop being one bolstered by holy pictures: they would see the suffering Christ in the reality of the lives of the poor.
I love you Jesus
my love above all things.
I repent with my whole heart for having offended you.
Never permit me
to separate myself from you again.
Grant that I may love you always
and then do with me what you will.
Holy Mother, pierce me through,
in my heart each wound renew
of my Saviour crucified.
4th Station: Jesus meets his mother
We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you.
Because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
When the Angel Gabriel had asked Mary to be the mother of the Saviour, and she had said ‘yes’, she could not have imagined what she was now seeing before her eyes. The person who had been conceived out of perfect love was now being tortured by powerful men, men who were interested in their own desire for power, even at the expense of the human dignity and justice of other people.
Brother Roger of Taizé contends that one of the real obstacles to faith for some people is the idea of God as someone who judges us harshly; and yet, St John tells us that God is love. Brother Roger suggests that some Christians find it hard to believe that they are loved by God. It is almost as though they believe that God would love other people but not love them.
I love you Jesus
my love above all things.
I repent with my whole heart
for having offended you.
Never permit me
to separate myself from you again.
Grant that I may love you always
and then do with me what you will.
Holy Mother, pierce me through,
in my heart each wound renew
of my Saviour crucified.
These Stations are extracted from our book Stations of the Cross: In Light of the Work of the Society of St Vincent de Paul. Walk alongside Jesus in his passion and Cross and be prepared to walk with compassion alongside our suffering brothers and sisters, with these meditations on the Way of the Cross in light of the work of the Society of St Vincent de Paul.
Pray these Stations at church, alone or with your parish, by ordering your copy of Stations of the Cross: In Light of the Work of the Society of St Vincent de Paul.