Following the Stations of the Cross, whether on the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem, in your own church, or at home, is always a powerful experience.  The journey is a spiritual entering into the experience of Jesus.  Stations always leave me feeling physically and emotionally exhausted, but at the same time spiritually uplifted.  It was a high-point of the pilgrimage that I helped to lead at the beginning of March – just before the lockdown was introduced.  Pilgrims shared in carrying the cross along what were unusually quite streets in the Old City of Jerusalem.  It was amazing.

This year, unable to enter our churches, unable to gather for processions of witness which often taken the form of Stations, we can still make the journey.  This is the special set of ‘Stations of the Cross’ I prepared for this Good Friday.  My colleague, Mandy Ford, found the pictures and I wrote the words.  It is a tough journey – but at the end there is resurrection, there always is.

Opening Prayer

Almighty God, whose most dear Son
went not up to joy but first he suffered pain,
and entered not into glory before he was crucified:
mercifully grant that we,
walking in the way of the cross,
may find it none other than the way of life and peace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

The First Station : Jesus is condemned to death

We adore you, O Christ,
and we bless you;
by your holy cross,
you have redeemed the world.

“They grabbed me. They dragged me.  I was like a sack of stuff manhandled into a market, a non-human, ready to be abused, ready to be tortured.  They didn’t look at me, the ones with the rough hands.  If they had they would have seen I was a person.  But instead they looked ahead, intent on doing the task in hand.  I was the task in hand.”

Jesus, condemned to death, arrested, beaten, bless those ill-treated at the hands of others and forgive me the times I have been guilty of the ill treatment.

The Second Station : Jesus carries his cross

We adore you, O Christ,
and we bless you;
by your holy cross,
you have redeemed the world.

“It was back-breaking, carrying this load.  How long could I carry it, how long could I keep going?  But having taken it up, I couldn’t put it down.  The weight of my family is on my shoulders, all we posses in one bag, grabbed in haste, bundled together and loaded onto me.  I carry it because it is what I have to do.  Like some pack animal I must simply walk, bowing under the weight of my responsibility.”

Jesus, burdened with the cross, burdened with my sins, bless those bearing a heavy load and forgive me the times I have failed to lighten the load that others carry.

The Third Station : Jesus falls for the first time

We adore you, O Christ,
and we bless you;
by your holy cross,
you have redeemed the world.

“I landed here, on this pavement.  He’s wanting to move me on.  The guy at the door of the shop wants to move me on.  But this is where I landed.  And at the moment I can’t get up.  The rest .. they’re just passing by.  They’ve got used to seeing people like me, on the pavement, just another bit of rubbish thrown down, cast away.  Rubbish, that’s all I am, that’s all they think I am.  I’ll have to move, he won’t go ‘til I get up and am on my way again.”

Jesus, falling on the hard stone of the pavement, bless those who have fallen, on hard times, in hard places and forgive me when I have walked past them.

The Fourth Station : Jesus meets his mother Mary

We adore you, O Christ,
and we bless you;
by your holy cross,
you have redeemed the world.

“He was my child, he is my child.  I had been living with the pain of separation so long, as though my child had been ripped from my womb, snatched from my arms, and I was left empty.  And now he is here, a man, but still needing his mother’s embrace.  And I need to feel him in my arms, to hold the man and know the child I love.  My broken heart is ready to burst, with painful joy.”

Jesus, glimpsing your mother in the crowd, bless those who are separated from the ones they love and forgive me when I have taken for granted those who love me.

The Fifth Station : Simon of Cyrene helps carry Jesus’ cross

We adore you, O Christ,
and we bless you;
by your holy cross,
you have redeemed the world.

“There was nothing for it but to pick him up and place him on my back.  They looked at me, a woman, carrying a man, through the streets.  But what could I do.  I couldn’t leave him where he was.  It was the only thing I could do, to take him up and bear the load, to ignore the stares, to risk the condemning hiss and the harsh look.  But what else could I do, but to carry his life.”

Jesus, helped by a stranger, forced to carry your cross, bless those who help bear the burdens that others carry and forgive me when I have failed to help my neighbour.

The Sixth Station : Veronica wipes the face of Jesus

We adore you, O Christ,
and we bless you;
by your holy cross,
you have redeemed the world.

“Come here.  This may sting. Let me wipe it better. Let me clean you up.  Who did this to you?  Did you know them?  Why did they pick on you?  Let me wash you clean, let me wipe away the blood, let me wipe away the tears.  It’s a clean hankie.  Don’t worry I’ll wash it.  I have a daughter just like you.  Don’t cry, you’re still as beautiful as ever.”

Jesus, wiped clean by a gentle hand, bless those who go to the aid of another and forgive me when I haven’t.

The Seventh Station : Jesus falls for the second time

We adore you, O Christ,
and we bless you;
by your holy cross,
you have redeemed the world.

“I fell.  I wasn’t quite sure what had hit me, a bullet, a car, but I fell, right there in the street.  And I couldn’t get up.  I could hear people around me screaming, some concerned, some angry that I was there, in the road, messing things up for them.  But I couldn’t move.  At that moment I couldn’t move – but I knew that somehow I had to.”

Jesus, falling, fallen, bless those on the point of collapse and forgive me when I have lacked compassion for the fallen around me.

The Eighth Station : Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem

We adore you, O Christ,
and we bless you;
by your holy cross,
you have redeemed the world.

“I grabbed the mike.  I’d never been in this position before, never thought of myself as a protestor. But the others pushed me forward.  You can do it! Speak for us, shout for us.  We were women together, taking control, doing the right thing, fearless of the opposition.  And I knew they were behind me, strengthening me, giving me the courage to speak up and to speak out.”

Jesus, bewailed by the women, bless those who make their voice heard and forgive me when I have failed to speak up.

The Ninth Station : Jesus falls for the third time

We adore you, O Christ,
and we bless you;
by your holy cross,
you have redeemed the world.

“I had been on the ward … well I had lost count of the hours.  The patients kept arriving, kept being admitted.  We were short of masks, short of swabs, trying to find a spare ventilator, trying to save the lives.  It was exhausting, I was exhausted.  Coffee had kept me going but in the end even that failed.  And, as I was making my notes, well, I crashed out.”

Jesus, fallen, exhausted, spent, bless those with nothing left to give and forgive me when I ignore what others are going through on my behalf.

The Tenth Station : Jesus is stripped of his clothes

We adore you, O Christ,
and we bless you;
by your holy cross,
you have redeemed the world.

“Like a hounded animal, barely human, dehumanised, stripped, exposed, at my most vulnerable.  There is no where to hide, nothing to shield me, nothing to protect me.  Every vestige of who I am, who I was, has been stripped from me.  It was my mother, my lover, who saw me naked like this, for love, for passion, now my nakedness is degrading, I am degraded and exposed, even to you.”

Jesus, stripped, exposed to us, bless those who are treated as less than human, the vulnerable and the humiliated and forgive me when I have denied the dignity of another.

The Eleventh Station : Jesus is nailed to the cross

We adore you, O Christ,
and we bless you;
by your holy cross,
you have redeemed the world.

“I stand, a cross, in the carnage of the world.  I once bore weight on my beams, now I wait to bear another weight.  I stand, a cross, in this destroyed place reminding you of another cross that bore the weight of the one who bore the cross.  You survey me, this cross, and you think of that other cross – I can bear that weight.”

Jesus, nailed to the cross, bless us who look to your sufferings and forgive me when I take your cross for granted.

The Twelfth Station : Jesus dies on the cross

We adore you, O Christ,
and we bless you;
by your holy cross,
you have redeemed the world.

“They held me to the last minute, held me in their love, held my emaciated, ruined, disfigured body, held me to the end.  Then they held their breath as my last breath ended.  They held me in life and they held me into death.  They held me, who could hold onto life no longer.”

Jesus, life destroyed, bless those who have died with the blessing of your eternity and forgive me when I take life for granted.

The Thirteenth Station : Jesus is taken down from the cross

We adore you, O Christ,
and we bless you;
by your holy cross,
you have redeemed the world.

“Easy does it.  Steady.  Now lower it.  I’ve got it.  I’ve got the weight.  You can let go now of it.  But it isn’t an ‘it’.  But I don’t know who it is.  I was called to this fire and now I must bring down those who have died, lost in the body bag, lost to the flames, but still my sister, my brother, whose dead weight I must bear.”

Jesus, taken down from the cross, bless those who are bereaved and are laying their dead to rest and forgive us when we ignore the pain of bereavement.

The Fourteenth Station : Jesus is placed in the tomb

We adore you, O Christ,
and we bless you;
by your holy cross,
you have redeemed the world.

“There is light at the end of the tunnel, light at the entrance to the cave.  But soon it will be closed and there will be darkness.  This will be a resting place, but only that, a resting place, a place for a time, just a time, until the light re-enters the darkness and life re-enters the world.”

Jesus, laid in the tomb bless us as we await the resurrection and forgive us whilst we wait.

Closing Prayer

Lord God,
whose blessed Son our Saviour
gave his back to the smiters
and did not hide his face from shame:
give us grace to endure the sufferings of this present time
with sure confidence in the glory that shall be revealed;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

There is a YouTube video of these Stations which you can view here.