The Stations of the Cross – 11 April – Thursday of the Fifth Week of Lent, Year C
Each year I post the Stations from a different source, today we begin one of two Station Meditations, composed by Blessed John Henry.
Meditations on the Stations of the Cross
By Blessed John Henry Newman (1801-1890)
Begin with an Act of Contrition, this one by St Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787)
My Lord Jesus Christ,
You have made this journey
to die for me, with love unutterable
and I have so many times unworthily abandoned You
but now I love You with my whole heart
and because I love You,
I repent sincerely for having ever offended You.
Pardon me, my God
and permit me to accompany You on this journey.
You go to die for love of me,
I wish also, my beloved Redeemer,
to die for love of Thee.
My Jesus, I will live
and die always united to You.
Amen
V. Adoramus te, Christe, et benedicimus tibi.
R. Quia per sanctam Crucem tuam redemisti mundum.
V. We adore You, O Christ and we bless You.
R. Because by Your holy cross, You have redeemed the world.
The First Station
Jesus Is Condemned to Death
LEAVING the House of Caiphas and dragged before Pilate and Herod, mocked, beaten, and spit upon, His back torn with scourges, His head crowned with thorns, Jesus, who on the last day will judge the world, is Himself condemned by unjust judges to a death of ignominy and torture.
Jesus is condemned to death. His death-warrant is signed and who signed it but I, when I committed my first mortal sins? My first mortal sins, when I fell away from the state of grace into which You did place me by baptism; these it was that were Your death-warrant, O Lord. The Innocent suffered for the guilty. Those sins of mine were the voices which cried out, “Let Him be crucified.” That willingness and delight of heart with which I committed them was the consent which Pilate gave to this clamorous multitude. And the hardness of heart which followed upon them, my disgust, my despair, my proud impatience, my obstinate resolve to sin on, the love of sin which took possession of me—what were these contrary and impetuous feelings but the blows and the blasphemies with which the fierce soldiers and the populace received You, thus carrying out the sentence which Pilate had pronounced?
V. Have mercy on us, O Lord.
R. Have mercy on us.
I love You,
Lord 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 always
and then do with me
what You will.
(St Alphonsus Liguori)
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be
AnaStpaul 