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Way of the Cross of Penance
by Blessed Canon Alfred Weber
taken from: «De Gethsémani au Golgotha»
Preparatory Prayer.
O Jesus! We are going to walk with You on the road to Calvary which was so painful for You. Make us understand the greatness of Your sufferings, touch our hearts with a tender compassion at the sight of Your torments, so that it may increase in us the regret of our sins and the love that we want to have for You.
Please apply to us all the infinite merits of Your Passion, and in memory of Your sufferings, have mercy on the souls in Purgatory, especially on those who are most abandoned.
O divine Mary, who first taught us to walk the Way of the Cross, obtain for us the grace to follow Jesus with the sentiments with which Your Heart was filled while accompanying Him on the road to Calvary. May we weep with You, and love Your divine Son as You do. We ask this in the name of His adorable Heart. Amen.
Before the Station
1. Jesus is condemned to death.
Jesus accepts the death sentence to give me life, but on the condition that I take my share of His sufferings and complete in myself what is lacking in His Passion. If I refuse to do so, I lose all the fruit of this salutary death and I commit myself to eternal death.
O Jesus! You warned us that we would all perish if we did not do penance. Therefore, I beg You to give me the courage to condemn myself and to punish without mercy those cursed sins which have condemned You to die for me. Amen!
After the Station
Before the Station
2.
Jesus receives His Cross.
The sentence is carried out without delay… Jesus takes on my iniquities. How many times, recognizing my guilt, I condemned myself!… But how much it costs me to repair!… What do my protests, my sighs and my tears matter to God if I don’t finally arm myself against myself, if I don’t decide to make worthy fruits of penance?
O Jesus, may I finally take up my cross and carry it generously after You, all the days of my life. Amen!
After the Station
Before the Station
3.
Jesus falls for the first time.
Remember, my soul, in front of your annihilated God, that every sin, even if forgiven, requires an expiation. It must be punished, in this life or in the next. If I postpone after death, it will be Purgatory with its flames and its immense desolation; and I will not leave it until I have paid all my debt, down to the last penny.
O Jesus! determine my soul to embrace as soon as possible the sweet penitence imposed on me by Your goodness, so that I may avoid, after this life, the dreadful misfortune of falling into the hands of Your infinite Justice. Amen!
After the Station
Before the Station
4.
Jesus meets His Most Holy Mother.
Each new suffering of Jesus is a sharp sword that pierces the soul of Mary. And yet this divine Mother follows the adorable Victim to Calvary… to the tomb… When I too will decide to climb the hard path of penitence, I am sure to meet Mary there… One walks and suffers with more courage under the eyes and near the Heart of his Mother.
Queen of martyrs, Virgin of sorrows! Since it is my sin which crucified Jesus and plunged You into tears, do not cease to make me hear the desolate cry that You uttered to the world, in one of Your apparitions at Lourdes: “Penance! Penance! Penance!” and that finally all the true Christians answer the cry of their Mother. Amen!
After the Station
Before the Station
5.
Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry His Cross.
At first it was only by compulsion and reluctance that Simon took on the Cross of Jesus. Then he found it so endearing that he could not let go of it.
Why then, O Jesus, should I be so reluctant to enter the career that You have opened up for me? Oh, I forget that Your Cross is heavy only with my iniquities, and that it is for me alone to carry it. I forget that the more I take up the Cross, the closer I will be to You, O my Savior, and that the Cross with You is Paradise.
Triumph, then, by the grace of Your example, over the resistance of my cowardice, and inspire me with courage and generosity to share with You this burden, which should weigh only on me. Amen!
After the Station
Before the Station
6.
Veronica wipes the Face of Jesus.
The Prophet had seen Him on the way to the execution, and he had not recognized Him! The Son of God did not even look like a man. He looked like a leper; He was the abjection of the people, the shame of the human race.
O my God, how much more hideous is my soul, disfigured by the leprosy of sin! This soul, Your living image, the daughter of Your love, it abhors You!… But, You will regenerate it in Your Blood, O good Jesus! and my penance, like a divine veil, will wipe away all its stains and will restore the radiance of its heavenly beauty. Amen!
After the Station
Before the Station
7.
Jesus falls for the second time.
My divine Master teaches me, by this new fall, to guard against the returns of sin. All my security rests in the help of His grace, and also in that unshakeable energy given by the continual exercise of penance. If I disarm my arm, I am lost! For the enemy will come back stronger than at the first attack, and the wounds of his poisonous dashes will be deeper and more desperate.
O Jesus, by the virtue of Your second fall, sustain my courage in the constant expiation of my past iniquities, so that I may be invincible to the temptations of the future. Amen!
After the Station
Before the Station
8.
Jesus consoles the Daughters of Jerusalem.
He said to them, “You must not weep for Me, but for yourselves and your children. If the green wood is treated in this way, if the justice of My Father weighs so heavily on an innocent victim, how will the dry wood be treated? What can souls expect when the sap of grace no longer flows?
O Jesus, could your voice, broken by pain, exhaustion and sadness, be more eloquent in convincing us that our only resource is in penance?
I implore You, infuse in my withered heart the Blood of Your Passion, and may I, renewed by this divine sap, no longer cease to weep and to expiate these faults which have made me like dry wood, destined to the fire of hell! Amen!
After the Station
Before the Station
9.
Jesus falls for the third time.
Look, my soul, at your Master and Model, lying in the dust, crushed under His heavy Cross! He has only one breath of life left!… It is to say to you that one cannot remain Christian, without becoming a crucified Jesus, and that this necessary transfiguration is operated only by the work of the penitence.
O Jesus, take hold of my mind and my heart with this doctrine of truth, and may I no longer hesitate to die with You every day on Calvary, in order to have the happiness of living eternally with You in Heaven. Amen!
After the Station
Before the Station
10.
Jesus is stripped of His garments.
What an ignominy and what a torment for my Saviour! It is at this price that He deserved for me the strength I need so much, to strip myself of this shameful fabric of sins that covers me from head to toe; these guilty habits, these perilous affections, this pride, this sluggishness and these cowardly negligences, I must strip myself of everything, tear it all off with violence, even if I cover myself with wounds, even if I put all the blood of my heart into it!
O Jesus! You order me to sacrifice the right eye and the right hand, if they scandalize me… Ah! at least, guide Yourself and strengthen my too timid arm in this bloody operation, which is the first condition of a sincere penance. Amen!
After the Station
Before the Station
11.
Jesus is nailed to the Cross.
Life is in the Cross; the Cross contains all the riches of the Redemption. I should therefore embrace it, press it to my heart in the embrace of love and gratitude. But, I am so afraid to suffer!… God, who wants my salvation, is forced to bind me to it in spite of myself. Every day, His fatherly hand crucifies me by the nails of humiliation, neglect, setbacks, illness, mourning and by so many others that His merciful Providence knows how to choose.
O Jesus! You surrendered Yourself without a murmur to the brutal cruelty of the executioners who pierced Your hands and feet; may I surrender myself with filial submission to the loving rigors of the crucifixion that will make me die to sin and live more and more by Your grace. Amen!
After the Station
Before the Station
12.
Jesus dies on the Cross for our salvation.
Jesus died!… He died on a Cross!… From His bruised limbs, from His torn veins, the divine Blood flows on my soul and gives it life… Child of blood, child of the Cross, can I live and save myself in the midst of pleasures and delights?
O Jesus!… wherever I meet Your image, it reminds me of Your sufferings and Your death: I always see You crucified!… O my Crucifix, imprint Your wounds so deeply in my heart, that they do not cease to shine in the holy works of my penance. Amen!
After the Station
Before the Station
13.
Jesus is taken down from the Cross.
Mary, standing at the foot of the Cross, took in the last breath of her Beloved. Now She contemplates on His knees and covers with kisses and tears His icy, livid and bleeding body. Her pain is like an ocean without shores. But, at the price of this pain, She deserved to assist me in my agony, and to receive me in Her arms when I leave this world.
O my Mother! You will be there when I die!… what a consolation!… And it is You who will present me to my Judge… What security!… But You still have to find in me the features of Your crucified Jesus.
Oh! show that You are my Mother and give me this divine likeness which will be Your joy and my salvation. Amen!
Oh! montrez que Vous êtes ma Mère et donnez-moi cette divine ressemblance qui sera Votre joie et mon salut. Ainsi soit-il!
After the Station
Before the Station
14.
Jesus is laid in the tomb.
Glorious tomb! Portico of heaven! It is the end of suffering, it is the beginning of bliss. A crib was the cradle of Jesus, a Cross His deathbed. He was indeed the Man of Sorrows! And now He is seated at the right hand of the Father and His kingdom is forever!
O Jesus! it is true! all the bitterness of penance is nothing compared to the immense weight of happiness that You reserve for Your Saints… Oh! to suffer with Jesus, to reign with Jesus!… I don’t want any other motto… The way of sacrifice stops at the tomb… and beyond that, it is the eternal reward. Amen!
After the Station
O Holy Mother of Sorrows,
impress upon my poor hear
the Wounds of my sweet Savior.
For the Supreme Pontiff
Share these prayers with those who are dear to you.
LOCATION:
Monastery of the Apostles
290 7e rang Mont Tremblant QC J8E 1Y4
The Apostles of Infinite Love
PO Box 4478 Mont Tremblant QC J8E 1A1 Canada
Phone:
(819) 688-5225
Fax:
(819) 688-6548
Sign of the Cross
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and of the Mother of God. Amen.
Preparatory Prayer
O Jesus! We are going to walk with You on the road to Calvary which was so painful for You. Make us understand the greatness of Your sufferings, touch our hearts with tender compassion at the sight of Your torments, in order to increase in us the regret of our faults and the love we wish to have for You.
Deign to apply to all of us the infinite merits of Your Passion, and in memory of Your sorrows, show mercy to the souls in Purgatory, especially to those who are most abandoned.
O Divine Mary, who first taught us to make the Way of the Cross, obtain for us the grace to follow Jesus with the sentiments Your Heart was filled with as You accompanied Him on the road to Calvary. Grant that we may weep with You, and that we may love Your divine Son as You do. We ask this in the name of His adorable Heart. Amen.
