The Stations of the Cross – 17 April – Wednesday of Holy Week
Meditations on the Stations of the Cross
By Blessed John Henry Newman (1801-1890)
Begin with an Act of Contrition:
ACT OF CONTRITION
Forgive my sins, O my God, forgive my sins:
the sins of youth,
the sins of age;
the sins of my soul
and the sins of my body;
the sins which, through frailty, I have committed;
my deliberate and grievous sins,
the sins I know and the sins I do not know,
the sins I have laboured so long to hide from others,
that now they are hidden from my own memory;
let me be absolved from all these iniquities
and delivered from the bond of all these evils,
by the Life, Passion, and Death
of my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Amen
The Seventh Station
Jesus falls a second time
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 pain of His wounds and the loss of blood increasing at every step of His way, again His limbs fail Him and He falls on the ground.
What has He done to deserve all this? This is the reward received by the long-expected Messias from the Chosen People, the Children of Israel. I know what to answer. He falls because I have fallen. I have fallen again. I know well that without Your grace, O Lord, I could not stand and I fancied that I had kept closely to Your Sacraments, yet in spite of my going to Mass and to my duties, I am out of grace again. Why is it but because I have lost my devotional spirit and have come to Your holy ordinances in a cold, formal way, without inward affection. I became lukewarm, tepid. I thought the battle of life was over and became secure. I had no lively faith, no sight of spiritual things. I came to church from habit and because, I thought others would observe it. I ought to be a new creature, I ought to live by faith, hope and charity but I thought more of this world, than of the world to come—and at last I forgot that I was a servant of God and followed the broad way that leads to destruction, not the narrow way which leads to life. And thus I fell from You.
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
The Eighth Station
Jesus comforts the Women of Jerusalem
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.
AT the sight of the sufferings of Jesus the Holy Women are so pierced with grief that they cry out and bewail Him, careless what happens to them by so doing. Jesus, turning to them, said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not over Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.”
Ah! can it be, O Lord, that I shall prove one of those sinful children for whom You bid their mothers to weep. “Weep not for Me,” He said, “for I am the Lamb of God and am making atonement at My own will for the sins of the world. I am suffering now but I shall triumph and, when I triumph, those souls, for whom I am dying, will either be my dearest friends or my deadliest enemies.” Is it possible? O my Lord, can I grasp the terrible thought that You really did weep for me—weep for me, as You did weep over Jerusalem? Is it possible that I am one of the reprobate? possible that I shall lose by Your passion and death, not gain by it? Oh, withdraw not from me. I am in a very bad way. I have so much evil in me. I have so little of an earnest, brave spirit to set against that evil. O Lord, what will become of me? It is so difficult for me to drive away the Evil Spirit from my heart. You alone can effectually cast him out.
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 