It is customary to pray the Stations of the Cross on Friday during Lent. In this prayer we recall Christ’s passion, death and resurrection, reminding us that we too "were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his." (Romans 6:4-5)
This Stations of the Cross prayer is accompanied by famous art work and the serene chanting of the Stabat Mater in Latin.
Prayer before beginning Stations
Pray: 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 You. My Jesus, I will always live and die united to You. Amen
1st Station – Jesus Is Condemned To Death
Christ Before Pilate
TINTORETTO
Pray: I adore You, Lord Jesus, and I praise you.
Because by Your holy cross, you have redeemed the world.
Meditation: Consider Jesus, scourged and crowned with thorns, being unjustly condemned by Pilate to die on the cross.
Prayer: Jesus, it was not Pilate, but my sins that condemned You to die. I ask You, by the merits of this sorrowful journey, to assist my soul in its journey towards eternity.
Scripture: John 18:28-40
Pray: One Our Father, One Hail Mary, One Glory Be
Stabat Mater: At the cross her station keeping,
Stood the mournful Mother weeping,
Close to Jesus to the last.
2nd Station – Jesus Accepts His Cross
Christ Carrying the Cross
EL GRECO
Pray: I adore You, Lord Jesus, and I praise you.
Because by Your holy cross, you have redeemed the world.
Meditation: A heavy cross is laid upon the bruised shoulders of Jesus. He receives it with meekness for by the Holy Cross He will redeem the World.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, please give me the strength necessary to carry my cross daily with patience.
Scripture: Luke 9:23
Pray: One Our Father, One Hail Mary, One Glory Be
Stabat Mater: Through her heart, His sorrow sharing,
All His bitter anguish bearing,
Now at length the sword had pass'd.
3rd Station - Jesus Falls the First Time
The Procession to Calvary
PIETER BRUEGEL
Pray: I adore You, Lord Jesus, and I praise you.
Because by Your holy cross, you have redeemed the world.
Meditation: Laboring under the weight of the cross, Jesus slowly sets forth to Calvary. His strength fails Him; He falls under the weight of the cross.
Prayer: Jesus, sometimes I stumble like a child with its first steps, but I feel that I can carry the tree of life, my cross, with its burdens, strengthened with your aid.
Scripture: John 19:17
Pray: One Our Father, One Hail Mary, One Glory Be
Stabat Mater: Oh, how sad and sore distress'd
Was that Mother highly blest
Of the sole-begotten One!
4th Station – Jesus and His Mother Meet
Jesus Meets His Mother on the way to Calvary
RAFFAELLO SANZIO RAPHAEL
Pray: I adore You, Lord Jesus, and I praise you.
Because by Your holy cross, you have redeemed the world.
Meditation: Consider the meeting of Jesus and His Mother Mary. Consider the sword of anguish that pierced His Mother’s heart.
Prayer: Jesus, grant me the grace to truly love Your Mother who is My Mother. Dear Mother Mary, please pray that I will keep the Passion of your Son always in my heart.
Scripture: Luke 2:34-35
Pray: One Our Father, One Hail Mary, One Glory Be
Stabat Mater: Christ above in torment hangs;
She beneath beholds the pangs
Of her dying glorious Son.
5th Station – Jesus is Helped by Simon
Simon Helps Carry the Cross
TITIAN
Pray: I adore You, Lord Jesus, and I praise you.
Because by Your holy cross, you have redeemed the world.
Meditation: Consider how the soldiers, fearing that Jesus would die on the way, forced Simon the Cyrene to help Jesus carry His cross.
Prayer: Jesus, I know that you help me carry my cross, help me to help others carry theirs. Jesus, make me better understand the value of my sufferings which should lead me closer to You, as Simon was united with You through the Cross.
Scripture: Mark 15:21
Pray: One Our Father, One Hail Mary, One Glory Be
Stabat Mater: Is there one who would not weep,
Whelm'd in miseries so deep
Christ's dear Mother to behold?
6th Station – Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus
Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus
PETER PAUL RUBENS
Pray: I adore You, Lord Jesus, and I praise you.
Because by Your holy cross, you have redeemed the world.
Meditation: Veronica seeing Jesus with His face bathed in sweat and blood fights the crowd to offer her veil to wipe His face. As He does He leave His countenance imprinted on her veil.
Prayer: Jesus, I ask you to make me strong to overcome my pride and weakness; to aid all those whom you put in my path.
Pray: One Our Father, One Hail Mary, One Glory Be
Stabat Mater: Can the human heart refrain
From partaking in her pain,
In that Mother's pain untold?
7th Station – Jesus Falls the Second Time
Jesus Falls
GIOVANNI BATTISTA TIEPOLO
Pray: I adore You, Lord Jesus, and I praise you.
Because by Your holy cross, you have redeemed the world.
Meditation: Jesus falls from the weight of The Cross and the sins of the world. But He continues on the Way of the Cross, the road to His own death, out of love for you/us/all.
Prayer: Jesus, how many times have you pardoned me from my sins, yet I fall again? Grant that in all my temptations I may always commend myself to You.
Scripture Matthew 11:28
Pray: One Our Father, One Hail Mary, One Glory Be
Stabat Mater: Bruis'd, derided, curs'd, defil'd,
She beheld her tender child
All with bloody scourges rent.
8th Station – The Women of Jerusalem Weep over Jesus
Jesus Comforts the Women
JACQUEMART DE HESDIN
Pray: I adore You, Lord Jesus, and I praise you.
Because by Your holy cross, you have redeemed the world.
Meditation: Consider how the women wept for Jesus. But He said to them: “Weep not for Me, but for your children.”
Prayer: My Jesus, laden with sorrows, I weep for the offenses I have committed against You, because of the pains they have deserved and still more because of the displeasure they have caused you, who have loved me so much.
Scripture: Luke 23:28
Pray: One Our Father, One Hail Mary, One Glory Be
Stabat Mater: For the sins of His own nation,
Saw Him hang in desolation,
Till His spirit forth He sent.
9th Station – Jesus Falls the Third Time
Jesus Falls a Third Time
DOMENICHINO
Pray: I adore You, Lord Jesus, and I praise you.
Because by Your holy cross, you have redeemed the world.
Meditation: Consider the third fall of Jesus Christ. His weakness was extreme and the cruelty of His executioners excessive.
Prayer: Jesus, I know, with each passing day, my body will sometimes fail me. Teach me to love my body enough so I will not place it where sin may reign and your Father’s love takes second place.
Scripture: Luke 14:11
Pray: One Our Father, One Hail Mary, One Glory Be
Stabat Mater: O thou Mother! fount of love!
Touch my spirit from above;
Make my heart with thine accord.
10th Station – Jesus Is Stripped of His Clothes
Jesus is Striped of His Garments
FRA ANGELICO
Pray: I adore You, Lord Jesus, and I praise you.
Because by Your holy cross, you have redeemed the world.
Meditation: Consider how violently the soldiers stripped Jesus. They tore His inner garments off so roughly that the skin came with them.
Prayer: Jesus I ask your strength for me so that I may be stripped of vice and not of virtue.
Scripture: Psalm 22: 19
Pray: One Our Father, One Hail Mary, One Glory Be
Stabat Mater: O thou Mother! fount of love!
Touch my spirit from above;
Make my heart with thine accord.
11th Station - The Crucifixion of Jesus
The Crucifixion
BETREM
Pray: I adore You, Lord Jesus, and I praise you.
Because by Your holy cross, you have redeemed the world.
Meditation: Consider how Jesus stretched out His arms on the Cross, and offered His agonizing death to His Father for our salvation.
Prayer: My crucified Jesus, nail my heart to Your Cross, that it may ever remain there, to love You, and never leave You again. I love You more than myself; I repent of having offended You.
Scripture: Mark 15:22-32
Pray: One Our Father, One Hail Mary, One Glory Be
Stabat Mater: Make me feel as thou hast felt;
Make my soul to glow and melt
With the love of Christ our Lord.
12th Station – Jesus Dies On the Cross
Jesus Dies on the Cross
ANDREA MANTEGNA
Pray: I adore You, Lord Jesus, and I praise you.
Because by Your holy cross, you have redeemed the world.
Meditation: Consider how Jesus, after three hours of agony on the Cross, abandons Himself to the weight of His body, bows His head and dies for the sins of humanity.
Prayer: Dear Jesus, help me to forgive all those who have injured me, so that I myself may obtain forgiveness from You.
Scripture: Luke 23:44-46
Pray: One Our Father, One Hail Mary, One Glory Be
Stabat Mater: Holy Mother! pierce me through;
In my heart each wound renew
Of my Saviour crucified.
13th Station – Jesus Is Taken Down from the Cross
Jesus is Taken Down From the Cross
ROGIER VAN DER WEYDEN
Pray: I adore You, Lord Jesus, and I praise you.
Because by Your holy cross, you have redeemed the world.
Meditation: Consider how two of Jesus’ disciples, took Him down from the Cross, and placed Him in the arms of His Mother.
Prayer: Jesus, grant me through Your Mother’s intercession to lead the life of a loyal child of Mary, so that I may be received into her arms at my death.
Scripture: Luke 23:50-52
Pray: One Our Father, One Hail Mary, One Glory Be
Stabat Mater: Let me share with thee His pain,
Who for all my sins was slain,
Who for me in torments died.
14th Station – Jesus Is Entombed
The Entombment of Christ
CARVAGGIO
Pray: I adore You, Lord Jesus, and I praise you.
Because by Your holy cross, you have redeemed the world.
Prayer: Jesus, I ask the strength to live and teach your word and life.
Scripture: Luke 23:53-56
Pray: One Our Father, One Hail Mary, One Glory Be
Stabat Mater: Let me mingle tears with thee,
Mourning Him who mourn'd for me,
All the days that I may live.
15th Station – Jesus Rises from the Dead for ALL Alleluia
The Resurrection of Jesus
PERUGINO
Pray: I adore You, Lord Jesus, and I praise you.
Because by Your holy cross, you have redeemed the world.
Prayer: Thanks Be To God!
Scripture: Colossians 3:1 If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, when Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory.
Pray: One Our Father, One Hail Mary, One Glory Be
Stabat Mater: By the cross with thee to stay,
There with thee to weep and pray,
Is all I ask of thee to give.
Prayer After the Stations: Oh Jesus, thank You for suffering and dying for me and for all of us. As we have shared in Your sufferings, may we also know the power of Your Resurrection. In Your name we pray, Amen.
The hymn "Stabat Mater" is ascribed to Jacopone da Todi, O.F.M. (d.1306). METER: Trochaic dimeter. The english translation of the Latin text is by Father Caswall and is perhaps the most extensively used. Composer: Claudio Casciolini (1697 - 1760).
Act of Contrition: O my God, I am heartly sorry for having offended thee; and I detest all of my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell, but most of all because they offend thee, my God, Who art all good and deseving of all my love. I firmly resolve with the help of Thy grace to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life. Amen
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