STATIONS OF THE CROSS WITH MARY

The First Station


"What is truth?"

In order to crush the head of Lucifer and overcome pride and arrogance, my Son observed this patient silence in his Passion, permitting Himself to be treated as an ignorant and foolish criminal. As the Teacher of this philosophy and as the Physcian of the sickness of sin, He would not deny the charges nor defend or justify Himself, nor refute those who accused Him, showing us by his own living example, how to oppose and counteract the intentions of the serpent.

... But do thou, my daughter, prerserve the doctrine of my divine Son and that which comes from me. Abhor human ostentation, suffer in silence and let the world consider thee ignorant; for it does not know where true wisdom dwells. (The Mystical City of God, Vol III) 

Resolution:
Wisdom and truth are embraced by accepting the Lord and His Cross. Our Lady will help me to do "Whatever He says." I will look for an obedience today.

Marian Vow:
John Paul II
This Wisdom is Jesus Christ himself, the Eternal Word of God, who perfectly reveals and accomplishes the will of the Father (cf.Heb 10:5-10). Mary invites everyone to accept this Wisdom. To us too she addresses the command she gave to the servants at Cana in Galilee during the marriage feast: "Do whatever he tells you" (Jn 2:5).
Veritatis Splendor, August 6, 1993. #119


II Station
Second Station - Jesus Accepts the Cross

Quote:
Venerable Mary of Agreda
The image of [Mary’s] divine Son, thus wounded, defiled and bound, remained so firmly fixed and imprinted in the soul of our Queen, that during her life it was never effaced, and remained in her mind as distinctly, as if She were continually beholding Him with her own eyes.
Mystical City of God, Volume III (Tan Books: 2006), 573.

Meditation:
Pontius Pilate,
Behold the Man!

Father Faber
[V]erily there was need that some one should testify that He was man, who, if He had been only Man could never have survived the crushing of the winepress which the threefold pressure –of His Father, of demons, and of men—had inflicted upon Him. Then rose over the crowded piazza that wild yell of blasphemous rejection by His own people, which still rings in our ears, still echoes in history, still dwells even in the savage frightfulness of its reality.
The Foot of the Cross, (Tan Books: 1978), 206.

Resolution:
One time today, when presented with a difficulty or with my Lenten resolution, I will try to be like Our Lady who silently and courageously accepted the Cross of Her Son and united Her heart to it.

Marian Vow:
St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
No other grace can be compared with that of carrying the cross out of love for our Lord.
The Thoughts and Saying of Saint Margaret Mary, (Tan Books: 1986), 79.

I give this resolution to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Thanks be to God for graces received.

The Third Station --The First Fall
Quote:
Fr. Faber
“He is her Babe of Bethlehem. She is helpless. She cannot get near. Omnipotence held her heart fast. In a peace far beyond man’s understanding, she followed slowly on to Calvary, Magdalen and John beside themselves with grief, but feeling as if grace went out from her blue mantle enabling them also to live with broken hearts.”
Foot of the Cross, (Tan Books:1978), 208.

Meditation:
John Paul II
“Mary shares our human condition, but in complete openness to the grace of God. Not having known sin, she is able to have compassion on every kind of weakness. She understands sinful man and loves him with a Mother's love. Precisely for this reason she is on the side of truth and shares the Church's burden in recalling always and to everyone the demands of morality. Nor does she permit sinful man to be deceived by those who claim to love him by justifying his sin, for she knows that the sacrifice of Christ her Son would thus be emptied of its power. No absolution offered by beguiling doctrines, even in the areas of philosophy and theology, can make man truly happy: only the Cross and the glory of the Risen Christ can grant peace to his conscience and salvation to his life.”
Veritatis Splendor

Resolution:
In my failings as well as my victories this Lent Our Lady will keep me company and give me the strength of her blue mantle and permit no “beguiling doctrines” to deceive me. I will turn to Our Lady for wisdom and strength.

Marian Vow:
St. Katharine Drexel
“O holy Mother of God, behold your child! I am not worthy but Jesus gave me to you. I am part of His legacy, teach me to behave that a child of Mary ought to behave.”
Praying With Mother Katharine Drexel, 14
I give this resolution to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Thanks be to God for graces received.


Topic: Fourth Station – Jesus Meets His Mother

Quote:
“She is going up to Calvary, in brave tranquility, to help to slay the Babe of Bethlehem.”
Father Faber, At the Foot of the Cross, (Tan Books: 1978), 211.

Meditation:
“The fourth dolor contains within itself the whole science and mystery of cross-bearing. This is the wisdom we learn from the picture while we gaze on Mary in the streets of the cruel Jerusalem. The eye of her soul sees the fair-haired Boy in the temple, whom she sought more than twenty years ago, while her bodily eye is fixed on the pale and bleeding and earth-stained Man, going with sound of trumpet and the chorus of earth’s curses to His doom. And shall we, who gave Him that heavy cross to bear, and kept weighting it after we had given it, if our cruelty were not satisfied, refuse to bear the sweet grace giving crosses which He binds on us, so little too as, when we have borne them for a while, we are forced to confess they are? Oh, no! let us do now as Mary did them –look at Him who is on the road before us, and see how the beauty of the Sacred Heart sits with meek majesty and attractive love on the woe-worn disfigured Countenance.”
Father Faber, At the Foot of the Cross, (Tan Books: 1978 , 239.

Resolution:
Is my suffering any greater than Mary’s who helped “to slay the Babe of Bethlehem?” I will try to be grateful for the small crosses which come my way.

Marian vow:
St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
“You must constantly carry the cross which He lays on you, be it interior or exterior.”
The Thoughts and Saying of Saint Margaret Mary, (Tan Books: 1986), 81.

I give this resolution to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Thanks be to God for graces received.


Topic: Fifth Station of the Cross
Jesus meets Simon the Cyrene

Quote:
Father Faber
Judas was almost a dolor by himself. We learn, from the revelations of the saints, how she had striven in prayer for that wretched soul. She had lavished all manner of kindness of him, as if he had been more to her than either Peter or John.
Father Faber, At the Foot of the Cross, (Tan Books: 1978), 218.

Meditation:
Is Our Lady reminded of Judas when she sees Simon’s compliance? Couldn’t Judas have borne the weight?

This was her first lesson in the loss of souls. If we were more like saints, we should know something of what it meant. The Passion began by losing an apostle’s soul, and ended by saving the soul of a poor outcast thief. Such are the ways in which God takes His compensations.
Father Faber, At the Foot of the Cross, (Tan Books: 1978), 219.

Resolution:
Today, I will pray for the conversion of sinners with the heart of Mary.

Marian Vow:
St. Katharine Drexel
O Mary, make me endeavor, by all means in my power, to extend the kingdom of the Divine Son and offer incessantly my prayers for the conversion of those who are yet in darkness or estranged from the fold of Your Divine Son.
Praying with Mother Katharine Drexel, 14
I give this resolution to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Thanks be to God for graces received.

Topic: The Sixth Station: Jesus Meets Veronica

Quote:
Father Faber
“How [Mary] longed to wipe the blood from His face with her veil, to part His tangled hair to remove with lightest touch that cruel crown, to lift the Cross off His shoulders and see whether her broken heart would not give her superhuman strength to carry it for Him!”
Father Faber, At the Foot of the Cross, (Tan Books: 1978), 212.

Meditation:
One can almost imagine the Mother of Christ standing beside St. Veronica in the crowd encouraging her spiritual daughter to great courage and sublime compassion.

John Paul II
[T]he Divine Redeemer wishes to penetrate the soul of every sufferer through the heart of his holy Mother, the first and the most exalted of all the redeemed. As though by a continuation of that motherhood which by the power of the Holy Spirit had given him life, the dying Christ conferred upon the ever Virgin Mary a new kind of motherhood—spiritual and universal—towards all human beings, so that every individual, during the pilgrimage of faith, might remain, together with her, closely united to him unto the Cross, and so that every form of suffering, given fresh life by the power of this Cross, should become no longer the weakness of man but the power of God.
Salvifici Doloris, #26
February 11, 1984

Resolution:
Today I will think of St. Veronica as a symbol of a child of Mary who looks to offer Christ comfort in his sufferings. How can I comfort the crucified in the presence of Our Lady today?

Marian Vow:
St. Katharine Drexel (feast day March 3rd)
What likeness is there between me and my Mother? Do I try to be like her, in her love for Jesus? In her devotion to the cause for which he died –the salvation of souls- in her absolute submission to the will of God, in her patient suffering? Holy Mary, Mother of God and my Mother too, let me stand at the foot of the cross with you, to learn its lessons and to learn to be like the Mother of Sorrows. Amen.

I give this resolution to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Thanks be to God for graces received.

The Seventh Station-The Second Fall of Jesus
Quote:
St. Alphonsus di Liguori
Cosmas of Jerusalem used to say, "While I keep my hope in thee unconquerable, O Mother of God, I shall be safe. I will fight and overcome my enemies with no other buckler than thy protection and thy all-powerful aid."
St. Alphonsus di Liguori, The Glories of Mary (Tan Books: 1978), 122.

Meditation:
St. Maximilian Kolbe
Cooperation with grace is very important, for in response to grace comes further new grace. The more faithful we will be to grace, the more we will have reason to hope that we will receive more graces. One thing is sufficient; now, this moment, cooperate with its grace. …There is but one ultimate cause of spiritual breakdown, namely, the lessening of the flow of grace through personal ignoring of it. Then the soul weakens. This flows from infidelity to grace. How can we assure ourselves against such an eventuality? St. Alphonsus Liguori tells us to turn to the Blessed Mother and place all our trust and hope in her. Experience proves this to be true.
Will to Love (Marytown Press: 1998), 72-3.

Resolution:
Today, I will ask over and over that my Heavenly Mother keep me responsive to the life of grace.

Marian Vow:
Ven Mary of Agreda
O Great Chieftainess of the martyrs, Queen of the courageous, Mistress of all the imitators of thy Son, if I am thy daughter and disciple, as Thou condescendest to call me, and as my Lord wishes to merit, do not reject my longing desire to follow thy footsteps on the way of the cross. If in my weakness I have fallen, do Thou, my Lady and Mother, obtain for me the courage of a contrite heart, justly humiliated on account of its vile ingratitude. Gain for me through thy prayers the love of the eternal Father, which is so precious, that only thy powerful intercession can obtain it and only my Lord and Redeemer can merit it for me.
Mystical City of God, Volume III (Tan Books: 2006), 579-580.
I give this resolution to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Thanks be to God for graces received.
Topic: The Eighth Station – Jesus Meets the Sorrowing Women

Quote:
Father Faber
“The absence of the apostles was a keen aggravation of Mary’s sorrow.”
Father Faber, At the Foot of the Cross, (Tan Books: 1978), 217.

Meditation:
The sorrowing, faithful women and St. John the Evangelist were there but where were the rest of the chosen Twelve?

Father Faber
[The absence of the apostles] was a triple wound to her. It wounded her in her love of Jesus. She knew how deep the wound was which it made in His Sacred Heart. She saw how, far beyond the cruel scourging and the barbarous coronation, Her beloved was tormented by this cruel abandonment of Him by those whom He had loved beyond the rest of men. She could go near to fathoming the anguish which this was causing Him. Moreover, her own love of Him underwent a cruel martyrdom in seeing Him thus deserted, and by those whose very office should have taken them to Calvary, who should have been witnesses of His Crucifixion as well as of His Resurrection.
Father Faber, At the Foot of the Cross, (Tan Books: 1978), 217.

Resolution:
Today, when I pass the crucifix, I will spiritually place myself in the company of Our Lady and pray for perseverance.

Marian Vow:
St. John Damascene
Having confidence in you, O Mother of God, I shall be saved. Being under your protection, I shall fear nothing. With your help I shall give battle to my enemies and put them to flight; for devotion to you is an arm of salvation.
Francis Johnston, Voices of the Saints, (Tan Books) 141.

I give this resolution to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Thanks be to God for graces received.
Related site: Castle of the Immaculate & AirMaria


Topic: Ninth Station - The Third Fall of Christ

Quote:
Fr. Faber
So completely was she clothed in holiness from head to foot, that it never so much as occurred to her to think that the load might be lightened, or the pangs mitigated, or the circumstances be more tolerably disposed. When we have comitted ourselves to God, we have committed ourselves to more than we know.
Father Faber, At the Foot of the Cross, (Tan Books: 1978), 223.

Meditation:
St. Maximilian Kolbe
When a soul attributes to itself what comes from God as his gift, can we expect that God will shower it with graces? If he were to do so, he would only confirm the soul in a false and arrogant opinion. When, from his Mercy, God does not give the new and bountiful outpouring of his grace and …even permits the soul to fall so that it would finally realize what it is in itself, and that it might no longer depend upon itself, but with greatest confidence dedicate itself to Jesus. Whence falls were, for the saints, steps on toward perfection. Woe to the soul that will not even accept this final medicine, but in pride continues to repeat: ‘I can’t improve myself.’ God, too, is just, and for every grace that he has conferred he will demand a strict accounting.
Will to Love (Marytown Press: 1998), 73.

Resolution:
St. Therese
I beg you, my Divine Jesus, to send me a humiliation whenever I try to set myself above others. … But, you know my weakness, Lord. Every morning I make a resolution to practice humility and in the evening I recognize that I have committed again many faults of pride. At this I am tempted to become discouraged but I know that discouragement is also pride. Therefore O my God, I want to base my hope in You alone.
The Prayers of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, (ICS Publications: 1997)

Marian Vow:
Our Lady to Sister Agnes Sasagawa,
visionary of Akita, Japan
Order of the Handmaids of the Eucharist
August 3, 1973

Is what you think in your heart true? Are you truly decided to become the rejected stone? My novice, you who wish to belong without reserve to the Lord, to become the spouse worthy of the Spouse, make your vows knowing that you must be fastened to the Cross with three nails. These three nails are poverty, chastity, and obedience. Of the three, obedience is the foundation. In total abandon, let yourself be led by your superior. He will know how to understand you and to direct you.

I give this resolution to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Thanks be to God for graces received.

Topic: The Tenth Station - Jesus is stripped of His garments

Quote:
St. Katharine Drexel
O incomprehensible Love! May I be covered over by the seamless garment woven so lovingly by Our Lady. May she cover me with it so that I may see God’s Will in all that happens.
Praying with Mother Katharine Drexel, 16

Meditation:
Quote:
St. Therese
O my Beloved, no one had this right over you and yet you obeyed not only the blessed Virgin and St. Joseph but even your executioners.

St. Therese continues.
Now in the Sacred Host I see you at the height of your annihilations. How humble you are, O divine King of Glory, to subject yourself to all your priests without making any distinction between those who love you and those who are, alas! Lukewarm or cold in your service … At their word you come down from heaven. Whether they advance or delay the hour of the Holy Sacrifice, you are always ready…O my Beloved, how gentle and humble of heart You seem under the veil of the white host! To teach me humility you cannot humble yourself further.
The Prayers of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, (ICS Publications: 1997), 116.

Resolution:
Let me accept the day, in all that happens, in great humility as the Will of God in the presence of Our Lady.
To help attain this resolution, I will make a Spiritual Communion and say Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto Thine.

Marian Vow:
St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
O my Mother, imprint deeply in my heart the wounds of your crucified Son.
The Thoughts and Saying of Saint Margaret Mary, (Tan Books: 1986), 17.

I give this resolution to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Thanks be to God for graces received.

Topic: The Eleventh Station – Jesus is nailed to the Cross

Quote:
Fr. Faber
It is her place to console, not to be consoled. Her Son came to minister, not to be ministered to. She must participate in the same sublime office.
Father Faber, At the Foot of the Cross, (Tan Books: 1978), 217.

Resolution (comes first today):
Please help me Mother Mary to stand with your courage, to meditate on the Passion of your Son. Do not let me run from the horror and the violence of that Good Friday. Let me pray and not faint so that my heart may be opened further to withstand my own trials by coming into contact with the Divine suffering.

Meditation:
Fr. Faber
The Right Hand is nailed to the Cross. The Left will not reach. Either they have miscalculated in the hole they have drilled to facilitate the passage of the nail, or else the body has contracted through agony. Fearful was the scene which now ensued, as the saints describe it to us in their revelations. The executioners pulled the left arm with all their force; still it would not reach. They knelt against His ribs, which were distinctly heard to crack, though not to break, beneath the violent pressure, and dislocating His arm, they succeeded in stretching the Hand to the place. Not more than a gentle sigh could be wrung from Jesus, and the sweet expression in His eyes dwelt there still.
Father Faber, At the Foot of the Cross, (Tan Books: 1978)

Marian Vow:
St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
Prostrating myself at the foot of my Crucifix I said: "How happy should I be, O my loving Savior, if Thou wouldst imprint on me the likeness of Thy sufferings. " To which he replied: “This is what I intend to do, provided thou dost not resist Me and on thy side dost contribute thereto."
The Thoughts and Saying of Saint Margaret Mary, (Tan Books: 1986)

I give this resolution to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Thanks be to God for graces received.

Topic: The Twelfth Station - Jesus Dies on the Cross

Quote:
John Paul II’s prayer which concludes the Encyclical
Veritatits Splendor

O Mary,
Mother of Mercy,
watch over all people,
that the Cross of Christ
may not be emptied of its power,
that man may not stray
from the path of the good
or become blind to sin,
but may put his hope ever more fully in God
who is "rich in mercy" (Eph 2:4).
May he carry out the good works prepared
by God beforehand (cf. Eph 2:10)
and so live completely
"for the praise of his glory" (Eph 1:12).
August 6th, 1993

Meditation:
Fr. Faber
The Crucifix is always the same, yet ever varying its expression so as to be to us in all our moods just what we most want and it is best for us to have. No wonder saints have hung over their Crucifixes in such trances of contented love. But Mary is a part of the reality of this symbol. The Mother and the Apostle stand as it were, through all ages at the foot of the Crucifix, symbols themselves of the great mystery, of the sole true religion, of what God has done for the world which He created. As we cannot think of the Child at Bethlehem without His Mother, so neither will the Gospel let us picture to ourselves the Man on Calvary without His Mother also. Jesus and Mary were always one; but there was a peculiar union between them on Calvary.
Father Faber, The Foot of the Cross, (Tan Books: 1978), 240.

Resolution:
Today, I will keep the crucifix of my Rosary near me and I will pray with the sentiments of John Paul II that “the Cross of Christ may not be emptied of its power.”
I will turn to the Mother of Mercy frequently today.

Marian Vow:
St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
I seem not to have suffered anything as yet and, consequently, I feel I have done nothing for my God.
The Thoughts and Saying of Saint Margaret Mary, (Tan Books: 1986), 81.

I give this resolution to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Thanks be to God for graces received.

Topic: The Thirteenth Station – Jesus is taken down from the Cross

Quote:
Father Faber
She remembers the midnight-hour when the Holy Ghost overshadowed her at Nazareth. Now it is the Eternal Son who is so strangely overshadowing His kneeling Mother.
Father Faber, The Foot of the Cross, (Tan Books: 1978), 300.

Meditation:
Fr. Faber
[Nicodemus and St. Joseph of Arimethea] approached our Blessed Lady with the profoundest reverence and sympathy, told her what they had done, and asked her permission to take the Body down from the Cross. With hearts full of the tenderest devotion to the dolors of the Immaculate Mother, they drew nigh to the Cross, and made their preparations.
Father Faber, The Foot of the Cross, (Tan Books: 1978), 298.

Ven Mary of Agreda
In imitation of the Mother, Saint John with the pious women and the other faithful there present, also adored [the Crown of Thorns]; and this they also did with the nails, handing them first to most holy Mary for venerations and afterward showing their own reverence. Then the great Lady placed Herself on her knees and held the unfolded cloth in her outstretched arms ready to receive the dead body of her Son. In order to assist Joseph and Nicodemus, saint John supported the head, and Mary Magdalen the feet, of Christ and thus they tearfully and reverently placed Him into the arms of his sweetest Mother. This was to Her an event of mixed sorrow and consolation; for in seeing Him thus wounded and all his beauty disfigured beyond all children of men (Ps 44,3 ), the sorrows of her most chaste heart were again renewed; and in holding Him in her arms and at her breast, her incomparable sorrow was rejoiced and her love satiated by the possession of her Treasure.
Mystical City of God, Volume III (Tan Books: 2006), 707.

Resolution:
Today I when I pray the Angelus, I will recall Our Lady’s acceptance at the Annunciation extended to every part of her life even to accepting into her arms the lifeless Body of the Son of God.

Marian Vow:
Fr. Faber
She performed her task as an act of religion, with grave assiduity, not delaying over it to satisfy the grief of which her heart was full. The dead Body seemed as obedient to her as ever the Babe had been in Bethlehem, obedient in all things but one. She told St. Bridget that the extended arms could not be closed, and laid by His side, or crossed upon His breast. We ought rather to say they would not than they could not, be closed.
Father Faber, The Foot of the Cross, (Tan Books: 1978), 301.

I give this resolution to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Thanks be to God for graces received.

Topic: The Fourteenth station – The Entombment

Quote:
St. Margaret Mary
“The cross is a precious treasure to be kept secret, lest we be robbed of it.”
The Thoughts and Saying of Saint Margaret Mary, (Tan Books: 1986), 79.

Meditation:
St. Francis of Assisi
Blessed is that servant who stores up in heaven the good things which the Lord has revealed to him and dos not desire to reveal them to others in the hope of profiting thereby, […] Blessed is the servant who keeps the secrets of the Lord in his heart.

The footnote from the above text explains:
As he does in other texts, Saint Francis proposes Mary, the Mother of God, as the model Christian. In this instance, she is the ideal servant of God who keeps the secrets of the Lord in her heart.
Francis and Clare; The Complete Works
Translated and Introdction by Regis J. Armstrong O.F.M. CAP.and Ignatius C. Brady, O.F.M., (Paulist Press: 1982), 36.
Resolution
I will try to keep something I do a secret so that I may bury it with the Lord in His tomb.

Marian Vow:
John Paul II
Even though Paul, in the Letter to the Romans, wrote that "the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now", even though man knows and is close to the sufferings of the animal world, nevertheless what we express by the word 'suffering' seems to be particularly essential to the nature of man. It is as deep as man himself, precisely because it manifests in its own way that depth which is proper to man, and in its own way surpasses it. Suffering seems to belong to man's transcendence: it is one of those points in which man is in a certain sense "destined" to go beyond himself, and he is called to this in a mysterious way.
Salvifici Doloris,


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