1st Station: Jesus is Condemned to Death
[V. We adore Thee, O Christ, and we praise Thee.
R. Because by Thy holy cross Thou hast redeemed the world. ]
V. Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover and about the sixth hour. Pilate said to the Jews, “Here is your King!” They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” Then Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.
(Pause for reflection)
Lord, it was not Pilate that condemned Thee to die. It was my sins. I beseech Thee, by the merits of this sorrowful journey, to assist my soul in its journey toward eternity.
All: I love Thee, my beloved Jesus; I love Thee more than myself. I repent with my whole heart of having offended Thee. Never permit me to separate myself from Thee again. Grant that I may love Thee always; and then do with me what Thou wilt.
Pater Noster, Ave Maria, Gloria Patri.
Now she feels O heart afflicted By the sword of old predicted! More than all a mother’s pangs.
2nd Station: Our Lord Takes up His Cross
V. Adoramus te, &c
[V. We adore Thee, &c]
V. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed. While making this journey with the cross on His shoulders, Our Lord thought of us, and offered for us to His Father the death that He was about to undergo.
(Pause for reflection)
Lord, I embrace all the tribulations that Thou hast destined for me until death. I beseech Thee, by the merits of the pain Thou didst suffer in carrying Thy cross, to give me the necessary help to carry mine with perfect patience and resignation.
All: I love Thee, my beloved Jesus; I love Thee more than myself. I repent with my whole heart of having offended Thee. Never permit me to separate myself from Thee again. Grant that I may love Thee always; and then do with me what Thou wilt.
Pater Noster, Ave Maria, Gloria Patri.
Sad and heavy stands beside him, She who once had magnified him, One begotten, only born.
3rd Station: Jesus Falls the First Time
V. Adoramus te, &c
[V. We adore Thee, &c]
V. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Consider this first fall of Jesus under His cross. His flesh was torn by the scourges, His head crowned with thorns, and He had lost a great quantity of blood. He was so weakened that He could scarcely walk, and yet He had to carry this great load upon His shoulders. The soldiers struck Him rudely, and thus He fell several times in His journey.
(Pause for reflection)
Lord, it is not the weight of the cross, but of my sins, which has made Thee suffer so much pain. Ah, by the merits of this first fall, deliver me from the misfortune of falling into mortal sin.
All: I love Thee, my beloved Jesus; I love Thee more than myself. I repent with my whole heart of having offended Thee. Never permit me to separate myself from Thee again. Grant that I may love Thee always; and then do with me what Thou wilt.
Pater Noster, Ave Maria, Gloria Patri.
While she sees that rich atoning, Long the moaning, deep the groaning, Of her mother heart forlorn.
4th Station: Jesus Meets His Mother
V. Adoramus te, &c
[V. We adore Thee, &c]
V. Consider, the meeting of the Son and the Mother, which took place on this journey. Jesus and Mary looked at each other, and their looks became as so many arrows to wound those hearts which loved each other so tenderly.
(Pause for reflection)
Lord, by the sorrow Thou didst experience in this meeting, grant me the grace of a truly devoted love for Thy most holy Mother. And thou, my Queen, who wast overwhelmed with sorrow, obtain for me by thy intercession a continual and tender remembrance of the Passion of thy Son.
All: I love Thee, my beloved Jesus; I love Thee more than myself. I repent with my whole heart of having offended Thee. Never permit me to separate myself from Thee again. Grant that I may love Thee always; and then do with me what Thou wilt.
Pater Noster, Ave Maria, Gloria Patri.
Who, Christ’s Mother contemplating. In such bitter anguish waiting, Has no human tears to shed?
5th Station: Simon Helps Jesus Carry His Cross
V. Adoramus te, &c
[V. We adore Thee, &c]
V. The Jews seeing that at each step Je-sus, from weakness, was on the point of expiring, and fearing that He would die on the way when they wished Him to die the ignominious death of the cross, constrained Simon the Cyrenian to carry the cross behind Our Lord.
(Pause for reflection)
Lord, I will not need to be forced to carry the cross. I accept it, I embrace it. I accept in particular the death that Thou hast destined for me with all the pains which may accompany it; I unite it to Thy death, I offer it to Thee. Thou has died for love of me, I will die for love of Thee, and to please Thee. Help me by Thy grace.
All: I love Thee, my beloved Jesus; I love Thee more than myself. I repent with my whole heart of having offended Thee. Never permit me to separate myself from Thee again. Grant that I may love Thee always; and then do with me what Thou wilt.
Pater Noster, Ave Maria, Gloria Patri.
Who would leave Christ’s Mother, sharing all the pain her Son is bearing, By those tears uncomforted?
6th Station: Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus
V. Adoramus te, &c
[V. We adore Thee, &c]
V. The holy woman named Veronica, seeing Jesus so afflicted, and His face bathed in sweat and blood, presented Him with a towel with which He wiped His adorable face, leaving on it the impression of His holy countenance.
(Pause for reflection)
Lord, Thy face was beautiful before, but in this journey it has lost all its beauty, and wounds and blood have disfigured it. Alas! my soul also was once beautiful, when it received Thy grace in Baptism; but I have disfigured it since by my sins. My Redeemer, I beg of Thee to restore it to its former beauty by thy Passion, as Thou alone can.
All: I love Thee, my beloved Jesus; I love Thee more than myself. I repent with my whole heart of having offended Thee. Never permit me to separate myself from Thee again. Grant that I may love Thee always; and then do with me what Thou wilt.
Pater Noster, Ave Maria, Gloria Patri.
Victim priest of Jewry’s nation, There he hangs in expiation; Scourge and nail have had their will.
7th Station: Jesus Falls a Second Time
V. Adoramus te, &c
[V. We adore Thee, &c]
V. Consider the second fall of Jesus under the cross—a fall which renews the pain of all the wounds of the head and members of our afflicted Lord.
(Pause for reflection)
Lord, how many times Thou hast pardoned me, and how many times have I fallen again, and begun again to offend Thee! By the merits of this second fall of Thine, give me the necessary helps to persevere in Thy grace until death. Grant that in all temptations which assail me I may always commend myself to Thee.
All: I love Thee, my beloved Jesus; I love Thee more than myself. I repent with my whole heart of having offended Thee. Never permit me to separate myself from Thee again. Grant that I may love Thee always; and then do with me what Thou wilt.
Pater Noster, Ave Maria, Gloria Patri.
Earth and heav’n his cause forsaking, Now his noble heart is breaking, Now the lab’ring breath is still.
8th Station: Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem
V. Adoramus te, &c
[V. We adore Thee, &c]
V. And there followed him a great multitude of the people, and of women who bewailed and lamented him. But Jesus turning to them said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never gave suck!’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us’; and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ For if they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
(Pause for reflection)
Lord, laden with sorrows I weep for the offences that I have committed against Thee, because of the pains which they have deserved, and still more because of the displeasure which they have caused Thee, Who hast loved me so much. It is Thy love, more than the fear of hell, which causes me to weep for my sins.
All: I love Thee, my beloved Jesus; I love Thee more than myself. I repent with my whole heart of having offended Thee. Never permit me to separate myself from Thee again. Grant that I may love Thee always; and then do with me what Thou wilt.
Pater Noster, Ave Maria, Gloria Patri.
Mother, fount whence love flows truest, Let me know the pain thou knewest, Let me weep as thou hast wept.
9th Station: Jesus Falls the Third Time
V. Adoramus te,
[V. We adore Thee, &c]
V. Consider the third fall of Jesus Christ. His weakness was extreme, and the cruelty of His executioners excessive, who tried to hasten His steps when He had scarcely strength to move.
(Pause for reflection)
Lord, by the merits of the weakness Thou didst suffer in going to Calvary, give me strength sufficient to conquer all human respect and all my wicked passions, which have led me to despise Thy friendship.
All: I love Thee, my beloved Jesus; I love Thee more than myself. I repent with my whole heart of having offended Thee. Never permit me to separate myself from Thee again. Grant that I may love Thee always; and then do with me what Thou wilt.
Pater Noster, Ave Maria, Gloria Patri.
Love divine within me burning, That diviner love returning, May thy Son this heart accept.
10th Station: Jesus is Stripped of His Garments
V. Adoramus te, &c
[V. We adore Thee, &c]
V. Consider the violence with which the executioners stripped Jesus. His inner garments adhered to His torn flesh and they dragged them off so roughly that the skin came with them. Consider your Saviour thus cruelly treated, and say to Him: Lord, by the merits of the torment which Thou hast felt, help me to strip myself of all affection to things of earth, in order that I may place all my love in Thee, Who art so worthy of my love.
(Pause for reflection)
All: I love Thee, my beloved Jesus; I love Thee more than myself. I repent with my whole heart of having offended Thee. Never permit me to separate myself from Thee again. Grant that I may love Thee always; and then do with me what Thou wilt.
Pater Noster, Ave Maria, Gloria Patri.
Mother, if my prayer is granted, Those five wounds of his implanted In my breast I fain would see.
11th Station: Jesus is Nailed to the Cross
V. Adoramus te, &c
[V. We adore Thee, &c]
V. And when they came to the place which is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on the right and one on the left.
Jesus, after being thrown on the cross, extended His hands, and offered to His eternal Father the sacrifice of His life for our salvation. These barbarians fastened Him with nails; and then, raising the cross, left Him to die with anguish on this infamous gibbet.
(Pause for reflection)
Lord, loaded with contempt, nail my heart to Thy feet, that it may ever remain there to love Thee, and never quit Thee again.
All: I love Thee, my beloved Jesus; I love Thee more than myself. I repent with my whole heart of having offended Thee. Never permit me to separate myself from Thee again. Grant that I may love Thee always; and then do with me what Thou wilt.
Pater Noster, Ave Maria, Gloria Patri.
Love exceeding hangs there bleeding. My cause pleading, my love needing, Bid him share his Cross with me.
12th Station: Jesus Dies on the Cross
V. Adoramus te, &c
[V. We adore Thee, &c]
V. Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.
(Pause for reflection)
V. Lord, I kiss devoutly the cross on which Thou didst die for love of me. I have merited by my sins to die a miserable death, but Thy death is my hope. By the merits of Thy death, give me grace to die, embracing Thy feet and burning with love of Thee. I commit my soul into Thy hands.
All: I love Thee, my beloved Jesus; I love Thee more than myself. I repent with my whole heart of having offended Thee. Never permit me to separate myself from Thee again. Grant that I may love Thee always; and then do with me what Thou wilt.
Pater Noster, Ave Maria, Gloria Patri.
Till life fails, I would not fail him, Still remember, still bewail him, Born thy Son and crucified.
13th Station: Jesus is Taken Down from the Cross
V. Adoramus te, &c
[V. We adore Thee, &c]
V. After Our Lord had expired, two of His disciples, Joseph and Nicodemus, took Him down from the cross, and placed Him in the arms of His afflicted Mother, who received Him with the greatest tenderness.
(Pause for reflection)
Mother of Sorrow, for the love of thy Son, accept me for thy servant and pray to Him for me. And Thou, my Redeemer, since Thou hast died for me, permit me to love Thee; for I wish but Thee.
All: I love Thee, my beloved Jesus; I love Thee more than myself. I repent with my whole heart of having offended Thee. Never permit me to separate myself from Thee again. Grant that I may love Thee always; and then do with me what Thou wilt.
Pater Noster, Ave Maria, Gloria Patri.
By the Cross my vigil keeping, I would spend those hours weeping, Queen of sorrows, at thy side.
14th Station: Jesus is Laid in His Tomb
V. Adoramus te, &c
[V. We adore Thee, &c]
V. They took the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb where no one had ever been laid. So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, as the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.
(Pause for reflection)
Lord, I kiss the stone that encloses Thee. But Thou didst rise again the third day. I beseech Thee, by Thy resurrection, make me rise glorious with Thee at the last day, to be always united with Thee in heaven, to praise Thee and love Thee forever.
All: I love Thee, my beloved Jesus; I love Thee more than myself. I repent with my whole heart of having offended Thee. Never permit me to separate myself from Thee again. Grant that I may love Thee always; and then do with me what Thou wilt.
Pater Noster, Ave Maria, Gloria Patri.
When my body lies forsaken, Let my ransomed soul awaken, Safe, in Paradise with thee.
Closing Prayer:
V. Behold, O kind and most sweet Je-sus, I cast myself on my knees in Thy sight, and with the most fervent desire of my soul, I pray and beg Thee to impress upon my heart lively sentiments of faith, hope, and charity, with true repentance for my sins, and a firm desire of amendment, while with deep affection and grief of soul I contemplate Thy five most precious Wounds, having before my eyes that of which David spoke in prophecy:
“They have pierced My hands and My feet; they have numbered all My bones.”