Ninth Station, Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem, Way of the Cross 2008

Way of the Cross - 20th Century
Society of the Divine Word Generalate Archives - Rome

NINTH STATION
Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem

V/. Adoramus te, Christe, et benedicimus tibi.
R/. Quia per sanctam crucem tuam redemisti mundum.

From the Gospel according to Luke 23: 27-28

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".

MEDITATION

Women, especially mothers, derive from their love an immense capacity for endurance in suffering. They suffer through the actions of men, they suffer for their children. Let us think of the mothers of all those young people who are persecuted and imprisoned in the Name of Christ. How many long nights those mothers spend awake and in tears! Let us think of the mothers who risk arrest and persecution as they persevere in family prayer, nourishing in their hearts the hope of better times ahead.

PRAYER

Jesus, despite your sufferings, you were anxious to speak to the women along the Way of the Cross; make your consoling and enlightening voice heard today by so many suffering women.

You urge them not to weep for you, but for themselves and for their children.

Weeping over you, they weep over sufferings that bring salvation to humanity, and are therefore a cause of joy. What they should weep for, though, are the sufferings due to sin, which make them and their children and all of us like dry wood, worthy only to be tossed onto the fire.

Lord, you sent your Mother to repeat this same message to us at Lourdes and at Fatima: "Do penance and pray that the wrath of God may be halted". Move us at our final hour to accept this urgent appeal with sincere hearts!

All:

Pater noster, qui es in cælis:
sanctificetur nomen tuum;
adveniat regnum tuum;
fiat voluntas tua, sicut in cælo, et in terra.
Panem nostrum cotidianum da nobis hodie;
et dimitte nobis debita nostra,
sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris;
et ne nos inducas in tentationem;
sed libera nos a malo.

Eia mater, fons amoris,
me sentire vim doloris
fac, ut tecum lugeam.