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by Fr. Bernard Holzer, aa
 THE WAY OF THE CROSS IN THE TIME OF PANDEMIC - PDF file
Introduction Remark
The Way of the Cross is much more than a time to relive the passion of Jesus 2000 years ago.
Today, especially in this time of pandemic, we make our own the passion of the men and women in all continents, who have suffered and continue to suffer.
In Jesus all sufferings, all injustices, all hatreds and all sins are brought together.
Let us pray for the world Jesus Christ loved and saved.
Where you there when they crucified my Lord?
Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Where you there when they crucified my Lord? (Negro spiritual)
Preparatory Prayer
Lord, here we are before you
to journey with you on the road of your Passion
with today's men and women.
We fervently pray that you will accompany us in the pandemic we are going through and give us the strength to believe and hope in you and in your resurrection. Amen!
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory be to the Father
Station 1: Jesus is condemned to death
“When Pilate saw that he was not succeeding at all, but that a riot was breaking out instead, he took water and washed his hands in the sight of the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood. Look to it yourselves.”
And the whole people said in reply, “His blood be upon us and upon our children.”
Then he released Barabbas to them, but after he had Jesus scourged, he handed him over to be crucified.” (Matthew 27: 24-26)
From one day to the next the crowd cheered and condemned Jesus, without thinking, guided by emotion and passion.
The leaders - political and religious - fled their responsibilities, washed their hands. They believe that violence solves problems, they condemn without evidence, they favor institutions over men, and they refuse to listen.
Jesus kept silent.
Let us pray:
Lord, I ask your forgiveness for my lack of courage and my cowardice, for my indifference to injustice and error, for my accusations, for my lack of faith and hope.
Station 2: Jesus carries his cross
“Yet it was our pain that he bore,
our sufferings he endured.
We thought of him as stricken,
struck down by God and afflicted,
But he was pierced for our sins,
crushed for our iniquity.
He bore the punishment that makes us whole,
by his wounds we were healed.
We had all gone astray like sheep,
all following our own way;
But the Lord laid upon him
the guilt of us all.
Though harshly treated, he submitted
and did not open his mouth;
Like a lamb led to slaughter
or a sheep silent before shearers,
he did not open his mouth.” (Isaiah 53: 4-7)
The cross is heavy to bear, heavy with the betrayal of Judas, the denial of Peter, the dispersal of the disciples, the hatred of the crowd. The cross is heavy with the sufferings of the world, the condemnation of the innocent. It's heavy with our faults.
How many innocent people have been condemned, tortured and cruelly put to death in the midst of terrible suffering. May I remember them now.
Let us pray:
Lord, give me to see the sufferings of men and women around me and in the world. Give me a compassionate heart. Give me to understand that it is you who is condemned, tortured, put to death even today. Give me the grace not to resign myself.
Station 3: Jesus falls the first time
“For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians, 5:21)
Let us pray:
Lord, I ask you to forgive my sins, and I thank you for your forgiveness, for giving me your strength to not despair but to believe that all humankind is saved and can stand up, and walk with you.
Station 4: Jesus meets his mother
“Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted (and you yourself a sword will pierce) so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” (Luke 2: 34-35)
There are a lot of mothers who suffer, cry, implore… The mothers of the children who are hungry, who are abused, who don’t have work, who are in prison, who are enrolled as soldiers and rebels, who are killed in the streets… The mothers who cannot take care of their relatives who are dying from coronavirus, who cannot come to touch and bless them…
Let us pray,
We thank you, O Lord, for giving us a mother like your mother.
Give us her faith, her courage. May she assist us “now and at the hour of our death.”
Station 5: Simon the Cyrenian helps Jesus to carry the cross
“As they led him away they took hold of a certain Simon, a Cyrenian, who was coming in from the country; and after laying the cross on him, they made him carry it behind Jesus.” (Luke 23: 26)
There are a lot of Simon to help those who suffer to carry their cross: all the front liners struggling against the coronavirus: care workers and all those doing their day to day duties. Most of them are anonymous…
Let us pray,
O Lord, remember all those who help others to carry their cross, who are generous, compassioned. Bless them, protect them, give them success, and the joy to serve.
Station 6: Veronica wipes the face of Jesus
“He grew up like a sapling before him,
Like a shoot from the parched earth;
He had no majestic bearing to catch our eye,
no beauty to draw us to him.
He was spurned and avoided by men,
a man of suffering, knowing pain,
Like one from whom you turn your face,
spurned, and we held him in no esteem.
Yet it was our pain that he bore,
our sufferings he endured.
We thought of him as stricken,
struck down by God and afflicted.” (Isaiah 53: 2-4)
Courageous Veronica, who dares to cross the line of Roman soldiers to support Jesus and express her love to him in the midst of the hateful or indifferent crowd.
She is the image of all volunteers who take risks to denounce the intolerable and to make themselves close to those who suffer and are oppressed. And Jesus reveals himself to them and gives them to see his face. Jesus is revealed in the poor and the suffering.
Let us pray:
O Lord, give us the grace to find the right gesture to comfort, help, support those who suffer, especially those who suffer injustice and contempt, and give us the courage to overcome the barriers and convictions that sometimes imprison us.
Station 7: Jesus falls the second time
Where you there when He fell down once again?
Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, and tremble.
Where you there when He fell down once again? (Negro spiritual)
Consider all the wounds of the human family, especially in this time of coronavirus and of confinement. Offer them to the Lord.
Let us pray with all the broken hearted, with all the victims of injustices…
Let us pray for courage to suffer with them, and to help them.
Station 8: Jesus meet the women of Jerusalem
“A large crowd of people followed Jesus, including many women who mourned and lamented him. Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children, for indeed, the days are coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed.’
At that time people will say to the mountains, ‘Fall upon us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us!’ for if these things are done when the wood is green what will happen when it is dry?” (Luke 23: 27-31)
The women were numerous to follow Jesus and to be his disciples, like today: how many women – mothers, grandmothers, widows, and youth - are committed with the Church, Jesus’ living Body!
Remember Jesus’ friends: Mary, Martha, Mary of Magdala, the bride in Cana, some widows…
Let us pray:
O Lord, remember and bless all the women who, like your mother Mary, believe in you, serve you, take care of their family, their barangay, their parish.
Station 9: Jesus falls the third time
I ask the Lord to forgive my sins.
I make the sign of the cross.
“Forgive me, Lord, for I have sinned.
These are my sins: (I enumerate my sins to God)”
Act of Contrition
“O my God,
I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee,
and I detest all my sins,
because I dread the loss of heaven, and the pains of hell;
but most of all because they offend Thee, my God,
Who are all good and deserving of all my love.
I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace,
to confess my sins, to do penance,
and to amend my life. Amen.
Lord, I will go to confession afterward, but forgive me now. Amen.”
I make the sign of the cross.
Station 10: Jesus is stripped of his garments
“Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus,
Who, though he was in the form of God,
Did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.
Because of this, God greatly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name
that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2: 5-11)
What a humiliation! Being stripped of your clothes, being naked, without dignity, without respect... How many of our contemporaries, our fellow citizens, our brothers and sisters in faith have nothing to put themselves, are humiliated, rejected... living on the streets.
Let us pray:
O Lord, give me the grace not to judge anyone on his appearances, does not allow me to say evil of my brethren, to despise one of the brothers you entrusted to me.
Grant me with humility.
Station 11: Jesus is nailed on the cross
“They gave him wine drugged with myrrh, but he did not take it.
Then they crucified him and divided his garments by casting lots for them to see what each should take.
It was nine o’clock in the morning*when they crucified him.
The inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.”
With him they crucified two revolutionaries, one on his right and one on his left.” (Mark 15: 23-28)
Station 12: Jesus dies on the cross
“Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala.
When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.”
Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.
After this, aware that everything was now finished, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled,* Jesus said, “I thirst.”
There was a vessel filled with common wine. So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop and put it up to his mouth.
When Jesus had taken the wine, he said, “It is finished.” And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit. (John 19: 25-30)
Until the end, Jesus is loving, carrying, and sharing with us his Spirit. All is finish, and all starts: Love is the answer.
Let us pray:
O Lord, your hands have touched the sick and the lepers, blessed the children. They are now nailed to the wood of the cross. But you still forgive and love. Give us your strength, your faith to be your hands for the men and women of today... even if because of the coronavirus we can no longer touch ourselves and the sick die alone. Help us to express our love to them and pray for them.
Where you there when He died upon the cross?
Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Where you there when He died upon the cross?
Station 13: Jesus is taken down from the cross
“But when the fullness of time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born the subject of the law, in order to redeem the subjects of the law, in order to confer us filial adoption.” (Galatians 4: 4-5).
Jesus is detached from the cross. He is handing over to his Mother. She participate in Jesus’ pain. With steadfast faith. How can I participate in Jesus’ pain, in the pain of his beloved, the poor, the marginalized, the victims of all calamities, the martyrs of our times?
Let us pray:
“Let us pray also for all those who suffer the consequences of the current pandemic, that God the Father may grant health to the sick, strength to those who care for them, comfort to families and salvation to all the victims who have died.”
(The Solemn Intercession for the afflicted in time of pandemic of Good Friday)
Hail Mary full of Grace, the Lord is with you.
Blessed are you amongst women
and blessed is the fruit of your womb Jesus.
Holy Mary Mother of God,
Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Station 14: Jesus is laid in the tomb
“Now in the place where he had been crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been buried.
So they laid Jesus there because of the Jewish preparation day; for the tomb was close by.” (John 19: 41-42)
Don’t be afraid to face the tomb: it’s not the end, but the beginning of a new life.
There is pain, there are questions, but there is hope and faith:
Let us pray:
O Lord, we are at your empty tomb with our fears, anxieties, questions, lake of faith… Grant us faith and hope in your triumph over death. Grant us the grace to work for the good of all and to help those in need.
Where you there when they laid Him in the tomb?
Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Where you there when they laid Him in the tomb?
Concluding prayer
May abundant blessing, O Lord, descend upon your people,
who have honored the Death of your Son
in the hope of their resurrection: may pardon come,
comfort be given, holy faith increase,
and everlasting redemption be made secure. Amen.
Our Father
Our Assumptionist communities are praying for you.
Sincerely,
Fr. Bernard Holzer, a. a.
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