Gethsemane Garden Stones, Stations of the Cross: Preparatory Prayer

Saturday

Preparatory Prayer

Meditations of St. Alphonse Ligouri

My Lord Jesus Christ, Thou hast made this journey to die for me with love unutterable, and I have so many times unworthily abandoned Thee; but now I love Thee, I repent sincerely for having ever offended Thee. Pardon me, my God, and permit me to accompany Thee on this journey. Thou goest 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 Thee.

My good and dear Jesus,

I kneel before You, asking You most earnestly to engrave upon my heart a deep and lively faith, hope, and charity, with true repentance for my sins, and a firm resolve to make amends.
As I reflect upon Your five wounds, and dwell upon them with deep compassion and grief, I recall, good Jesus, the words the Prophet David spoke long ago concerning Yourself:

“They pierced My hands and My feet; they have numbered all My bones.”

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What are the Stations of the Cross?

The Stations of the Cross or Way of the Cross; in Latin, Via Crucis; also called the Via Dolorosa or Way of Sorrows, or simply, The Way refers to the depiction of the final hours or Passion of Jesus Christ, and the devotion commemorating the Passion.

Tradition asserts that the Blessed Virgin used to visit daily the scenes of Christ’s Passion. After Christ Jesus died and rose from the dead, many people reflected upon His Passion and death. They began to make visits to Jerusalem and walk in Jesus’ footsteps. The street Christ Jesus walked is still called Via Dolorosa, which means the way of pain.

St. Jerome speaks of the crowds of pilgrims from all countries who used to visit the holy places in his day. As Christianity spread throughout the known world, distance made it nearly impossible for people to make the trip to Jerusalem. That didn’t stop their need to know and remember. By the twelfth century the fervor of the Crusades and a heightened devotion to the Passion of Christ created a demand in Europe for representations of the last events in Christ Jesus’ life. When the Franciscans took over the custody of the shrines in the Holy Land in 1342, they saw it as their mission to encourage devotion to these places.

In western Europe a series of shrines erected to help the faithful remember Christ’s Passion became commonplace. They were erected outside Churches and monasteries and in other places as well. They are usually arranged at intervals around the walls of a church, though sometimes they are to be found in the open air, especially on roads leading to a church or shrine. In monasteries they are often placed in the cloisters.

The use of the Stations did not become at all general before the end of the seventeenth century, but they are now to be found in almost every church. For many years there was a considerable variety in the number and title of these “stations.” The current number of fourteen first appeared in the Low Countries in the sixteenth century and became standard in the eighteenth century with a series of papal pronouncements.

The chief promoter of this devotion was the Franciscan Leonard of Port Maurice [died 1751], who set up more than five hundred sets of stations, the best known being the one in the Coliseum of Rome. Modern liturgists have emphasized that devotion to the Passion is incomplete without reference to the Resurrection and have thus fostered the addition of a “fifteenth station,” the Resurrection of Christ Jesus or the “Divine Mercy” image.

The Season of Lent is a natural time for this devotion. “Pilgrims” can come to Church any time, pray and move from station to station. We tell our children that the Stations of the Cross are like railroad stations because we stop at every one. The Church may have books available too, to help us reflect on these Stations. Sometimes parishes schedule a time for people to gather and pray the stations together. The Stations themselves are a series of 14 images or sculptures depicting the following scenes:

I. Jesus is condemned to death

II. Jesus accepts the cross

III. The first fall

IV. Jesus meets His Mother

V. Simon of Cyrene carries the cross

VI. Veronica wipes Jesus’ face with her veil

VII. The second fall

VIII. Jesus comforts the weeping women

IX. The third fall

X. Jesus is stripped of His garments

XI. Crucifixion: Jesus is nailed to the cross

XII. Jesus dies on the cross

XIII. Jesus’ body is laid in His mother’s arms (Pieta)

XIV. Jesus is placed in the tomb (Sepulchre)

*source* The Catholic Encyclopedia - Newadvent.org

The Stabat Mater Dolorosa

Stabat Mater Dolorosa - Original Latin lyrics

Stabat mater dolorosa

juxta Crucem lacrimosa,

dum pendebat Filius.

Cuyus animam gementem,

contristatam et dolentem,

pertransivit gladius.

O quam tristis et afflicta

fuit illa benedicta

Mater Unigeniti.

Quae moerebat et dolebat,

Pia Mater cum videbat

Nati poenas incliti.

Quis est homo qui non fleret,

Matrem Christi si videre

tin tanto supplicio?

Quis non posset contristari,

Christi Matrem contemplari

dolentem cum Filio?

Pro peccatis suae gentis

vidit Jesum in tormentis

et flagellis subditum.

Vidit suum dulcem natum

moriendo desolatum,

dum emisit spiritum.

Eia Mater, fons amoris,

me sentire vim doloris

fac, ut tecum lugeam.

Fac ut ardeat cor meum

in amando Christum Deum,

ut sibi complaceam.

Sancta mater, istud agas,

crucifixi fige plagas

cordi meo valide.

Tui nati vulnerati,

tam dignati pro me pati,

poenas mecum divide.

Fac me tecum pie flere,

crucifixo condolere,

donec ego vixero.

Iuxta crucem tecum stare,

et me tibi sociare

in planctu desidero.

Virgo virginum praeclara,

mihi iam non sis amara:

fac me tecum plangere.

Fac ut portem Christi mortem,

passionis fac consortem,

et plagas recolere.

Fac me plagis vulnerari,

Fac me cruce inebriari,

et cruore Filii.

Flammis ne urar succensus

per te Virgo, sim defensus

in die judicii

Christe, cum sit hinc exire,

da per matrem me venire

ad palmam victoriae.

Quando corpus morietur,

fac ut animae donetur

Paradisi gloria. Amen

Stabat Mater Dolorosa - English lyrics

At the cross her station keeping,

Stood the mournful Mother weeping,

Close to Jesus to the last.

Through her heart, His sorrow sharing,

All His bitter anguish bearing,

Now at length the sword had pass’d.

Oh, how sad and sore distress’d

Was that Mother highly blest

Of the sole-begotten One!

Christ above in torment hangs;

She beneath beholds the pangs

Of her dying glorious Son.

Is there one who would not weep,

Whelm’d in miseries so deep

Christ’s dear Mother to behold?

Can the human heart refrain

From partaking in her pain,

In that Mother’s pain untold?

Bruis’d, derided, curs’d, defil’d,

She beheld her tender child

All with bloody scourges rent.

For the sins of His own nation,

Saw Him hang in desolation,

Till His spirit forth He sent.

O thou Mother! fount of love!

Touch my spirit from above;

Make my heart with thine accord.

Make me feel as thou hast felt;

Make my soul to glow and melt

With the love of Christ our Lord.

Holy Mother! pierce me through;

In my heart each wound renew

Of my Saviour crucified.

Let me share with thee His pain,

Who for all my sins was slain,

Who for me in torments died.

Let me mingle tears with thee,

Mourning Him who mourn’d for me,

All the days that I may live.

By the cross with thee to stay,

There with thee to weep and pray,

Is all I ask of thee to give.

Virgin of all virgins best,

Listen to my fond request

Let me share thy grief divine.

Let me, to my latest breath,

In my body bear the death

Of that dying Son of thine.

Wounded with His every wound,

Steep my soul till it hath swoon’d

In His very blood away.

Be to me, O Virgin, nigh,

Lest in flames I burn and die,

In His awful Judgment day.

Christ, when Thou shalt call me hence,

Be Thy Mother my defence,

Be Thy cross my victory.

While my body here decays,

May my soul Thy goodness praise,

Safe in Paradise with Thee. Amen.

The Crown of Thorns

27 Then the soldiers of the governor taking Jesus into the hall, gathered together unto him the whole band; 28 And stripping him, they put a scarlet cloak about him. 29 And platting a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand. And bowing the knee before him, they mocked him, saying: Hail, king of the Jews. 30 And spitting upon him, they took the reed, and struck his head. (Matthew 27) ...and they gave him blows. 4 Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith to them: Behold, I bring him forth unto you, that you may know that I find no cause in him. 5 (Jesus therefore came forth, bearing the crown of thorns and the purple garment.) And he saith to them: Behold the Man. (John 19)

"Though those cruel men press a Crown of Thorns on the head of Jesus in derision and mockery, yet contrary to their intention and in spite of their malice, they proclaim him their crowned Sovereign. For upon bended knees they salute him, King of the Jews. Hence, in their harsh and cruel treatment of our Lord, their words and actions proclaim him to be their King" (St. Bernard)

The crowning with thorns as prophesied in the book of Genesis 22:13

6 And he took the wood for the holocaust, and laid it upon Isaac his son: and he himself carried in his hands fire and a sword. And as they two went on together, 7 Isaac said to his father: My father. And he answered: What wilt thou, son? Behold, saith he, fire and wood: where is the victim for the holocaust? 8 And Abraham said: God will provide himself a victim for an holocaust, my son. So they went on together. 9 And they came to the place which God had shown him, where he built an altar, and laid the wood in order upon it: and when he had bound Isaac his son, he laid him on the altar upon the pile of wood. 10 And he put forth his hand and took the sword, to sacrifice his son.
11 And behold an angel of the Lord from heaven called to him, saying: Abraham, Abraham. And he answered: Here I am. 12 And he said to him: Lay not thy hand upon the boy, neither do thou any thing to him: now I know that thou fearest God, and hast not spared thy only begotten son for my sake. 13 Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw behind his back a ram amongst the briers sticking fast by the horns, which he took and offered for a holocaust instead of his son.

Mary’s House in Ephesus