The 1st Station:
Jesus is Condemned to Death
The Reader:
Alone,
Beaten and betrayed:
Silent, unconvicted lamb.
By man's command is
Death conveyed, they think
In willful parody of God.
But this One's will is Joined to Will,
The slick stone path
Already trod in
Echoing Eternal halls,
Where irresistible Intent
Belies
Shouted echoes Inside palace walls.
The People:
He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, he did not open his mouth.
By a perversion of justice he was taken away.
The 2nd Station
Jesus Takes Up the Cross
The Reader:
From what forsaken Ancient tree,
By whose alluring fruit
Have we hewn
This beam so carelessly?
Planed by sharpened,
Steel-edged pride,
Now blackened, filthy,
Slivered, dried. And we,
Grown twisted by its Weight: staggering, bent,
Blind, gruesome shapes,
We thrust it at you Son of Man
As token of the death we live,
The yoke we chose
And can't forgive.
As you are bent
My neck unbows,
As you submit Now I can see:
No beaten man by lashes scored,
But God's anointed:
Christ, my Lord.
The People:
And we like sheep have gone astray;
we have all turned to our own way
and God has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
The 3rd Station:
Jesus Falls the First Time
The Reader:
The faithless faithful turn away.
What King is this
Whom even angels leave to Calvary?
No flaming chariot to lift
This anguished man to heaven's gate,
Where Moses and Elijah stood?
This is our hope? A Messianic vision
Crushed to earth by earthly weight,
Robed in filth, crowned by blood,
Collapsed in Holy mission?
Yet now, he struggles, stumbles,
Stands again.
alings to that cross As if
It were sweet life, not burden.
Continues on death's journey caused
By God's Own Will and I am lost,
Alone in doubt amid the crowd and strife.
The only clear path follows him:
A steep, rough-cobbled Way to Life.
The People:
Yet it was the will of God to crush him with pain.
Out of his anguish he will see light;
The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous...
The 4th Station:
Jesus Meets His Mother
The Reader:
Obedient handmaid Slight and strong
By grace and spirit.
Gentle arms
That only long
To hold him One more time.
Once more, in time.
Waiting now, Her torment born
Of each slow step
And piercing thorn.
One arm lifts,
Hand outstretched
In agonizing Emptiness.
He turns
Eyes touch:
A moment
For a lifetime.
A soldier's blow,
A muttered curse.
She lets him go,
For us.
The People:
Of what use is frankincense that comes from Sheba or sweet cane from a distant land? O my poor people, put on sackcloth and roll in ashes; make mourning for an only child, most bitter lamentation.
The 5th Station:
Simon is Forced to Carry the Cross
The Reader:
Not my business or my cause,
Not my temple or my god.
Not my belief, not my sin,
Not my savior or my king.
Not me. I am a stranger,
Wait! I am
Innocent, you see.
No, not this Blood-stained thing:
This somehow too-familiar beam.
Please, someone
Take this horrid weight,
Before I fall,
Before I die.
Ah, blessed freeing hands!
But who
Redeems me from
Unearned travail?
You? Not you, sir!
Bruised and bent
Again under this tree.
For a stranger?
A sinner? For me?
The People:
When this people or a prophet or a priest asks you,
"What is the burden of the Lord?" you shall say to them,
"You are the burden..."
The 6th Station:
Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus
The Reader:
Darting out,
Swift blur of tan cloth
Moved by faith
Against an angry tide,
To seek,
To touch
To love her Lord,
By Temple priests
And king decried.
And what reward
For mercy?
Faint likeness of
Reflected light,
Indelible,
Ineffable,
To wrap about her heart
Forever.
The People:
Seek the Lord while he may be found,
call upon him while he is near;
let the wicked forsake their way and the unrighteous their thoughts;
let them return to the Lord that he may have mercy on them ...
... and it shall be to the Lord for a memorial,
for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
The 7th Station:
Jesus Falls a Second Time
The Reader:
Beast-bred claws
Amidst the stones,
An exiled angel's shadow
Falls across
One sandaled foot;
Calls him down
To earth again.
Yet even this will not atone
Our spurning God's intention.
O rise, Redemptorist,
In shame I plead,
Push the clinging earth away and
Seize this journey
To the end –
That I may stand,
That I may be made
Whole in Thee.
The People:
Yet it was our infirmities that he bore,
our sufferings that he endured,
while we thought of him as stricken,
as one smitten by God and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our offenses,
crushed for our sins,
upon him
was the chastisement that made us whole,
by his stripes we were healed.
The 8th Station:
Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem
The Reader:
Weep not for him
Who, by each lash and
Thorn-fresh wound,
Binds closer to the God we spurned
For things all ashes now.
In each slow step he
Fights for us,
Yearns for us and
Cries for us.
Let me go, foul
Winding thing of Pride and judgment,
Reveling in doubt.
By Grace I turn
To Savior Prince
And plead for Life
By death be seized.
Hold fast to me
Beloved One,
Die now for me My God's own Son,
Live on for me
My brother, my Jesus, my Lord.
The People:
The Lord is the strength of his people;
he is the saving refuge of his anointed.
O save your people
and bless your heritage;
be their shepherd
and carry them forever.
The 9th Station:
Jesus Falls a Third Time
The Reader:
Man has failed
As all men must,
Powerless alone
To rise above
The dust of earth and
Live in Perfect Will.
Human strength
Drained out by unbelief,
He breathes by
Faith alone until
Infused by Spirit,
Living through a body
Spent in zeal For the kingdom.
Blessed Advocate!
Carry this torn Lamb
Through Golgotha's gate,
To hill,
To cross,
To die,
To wait
The Father that he longs for.
The People:
He sustained him in desert lands,
in a howling wilderness waste...
As an eagle stirs up the nest and hovers over its young,
as it spreads its wings, takes them up and
bears them aloft on its pinions,
the Lord alone guided him.
The 10th Station:
Jesus is Stripped of His Garments
The Reader:
Again misguided men
Bethought to strip him
Of some earthly things
And cast their lot
With Legion.
They only freed him
From the last
Vestige of a human
Past, to soar in Majestic sacrifice,
Hidden from their
Beclouded vision.
Have mercy, Lord,
For I am bound: this world is
Wrapped so tightly round,
I cannot tear it off alone.
Rend these garments,
Shred my heart,
Let fear take flight
And fetters part;
Clothe me in My Savior's sacred heart.
The People:
Yet even now, says the Lord,
return to me with your whole heart,
with fasting and weeping and mourning;
rend your hearts, not your garments,
and return to the Lord your God.
The 11th Station:
Jesus is Nailed to the Cross
The Reader:
Not enough.
Not enough to carry it, fall under it,
Lift and drag this thing
Bequeathed to him
By heedless sin.
Welded by iron,
Fused by blood,
Conjoined in life and death and then
In my bleak soul I cry, I would
Drive those spikes myself, my Lord.
If nails there must be for you,
Then let them bring you into me:
Your blood be my sacrament.
Let them also pierce me through
And hold me fast to your intent.
Make some small gift of agony be mine,
Flown like a kite from falc'ner's glove
Above this bitter earth to find
The one true path to God.
The People:
This is the gate of the Lord;
the righteous shall enter through it.
The 12th Station:
Jesus Dies on the Cross
The Reader:
Lightning darkened skies,
Howling madness in the wind:
Nature's despair for One who died
In human form, to death rescind.
Pierced, abandoned Son of Man,
Gentle Dove, God's true Lamb,
Shepherd and sheep-gate,
Redeemer and friend,
The cross made holy
By your hands that
Healed the broken, blind and lame
Becomes a sign of hope
Proclaimed by all who wend
Their way through
Narrow paths to you.
Not one life to another,
But life
Lived in Life Unchanging:
Perfect mold
Formed for each brother
Sister and disciple summoned
To be cast in fire from
Water, wine,
Unleavened bread and Given to the Father.
The People:
Between the vestibule and the altar
let the priests, the ministers of the Lord weep...
"Where is their God?"
The 13th Station:
The Body of Jesus is Placed into the Arms of His Mother
The Reader:
Now
She weeps.
Human son
Mourned
By human mother:
For the blood
She wipes,
The wounds
She covers.
Strong arms
Enfold his
Ravaged head;
Rock the child
Whose soul has fled
Unto the Father.
Mourners gather
With nard and herbs
And burial clothes.
One last time
She lets him go.
The People:
Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word.
The 14th Station:
Jesus is Laid in the Tomb
The Reader:
No truth is there
In this cold stone wall,
Our own hard hearts' construction.
Oh barren,
Broken,
Desert world, this
Frigid dark is
Only token of
The coming of
The Son.
Holy Spirit
Grant me faith in desolation.
Hold me, Abba,
Bear me up
To wait,
Wait,
I wait,
The Coming of the Light.
The People:
The light shines in the darkness
and the darkness did not overcome it.
