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Via Dolorosa with
Pope Benedict XVI
Meditations and Prayers by His Eminence Cardinal Camillo Ruini Vicar General Emeritus of His Holiness for the Diocese of Rome
All booklets are published thanks to the generous support of the members of the Catholic Truth Society
CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY PUBLISHERS TO THE HOLY SEE
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Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 First Station . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 Second Station . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 Third Station . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 Fourth Station. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 Fifth Station . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 Sixth Station . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 Seventh Station . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31 Eighth Station. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35 Ninth Station . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39 Tenth Station . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43 Eleventh Station . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47 Twelfth Station. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51 Thirteenth Station. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55 Fourteenth Station . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59 Final Hymn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62
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Introduction Opening Hymn V. By a tree we were brought into bondage, and by the holy Cross we were set free. R. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you, because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world. V. The fruit of a tree beguiled us; the Son of God has redeemed us. R. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you, because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world. Meditation When the Apostle Philip asked Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father,” he replied, “Have I been with you all this time, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:8-9). This evening, as we accompany Jesus in our hearts while he makes his way beneath the cross, let us not forget those words. Even as he carries the cross, even in his death on the cross, Jesus remains the Son, who is one with God the Father. When we look upon his face disfigured by beating, weariness and inner suffering, we see the face of the Father. Indeed, it is precisely in this moment that God’s glory, his surpassing splendour, in some way becomes visible on the face of Jesus. In this poor, suffering man whom Pilate, in the hope of eliciting compassion, showed to the Jews with the words “Behold
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the man!” (Jn 19:5), we see revealed the true greatness of God, that mysterious grandeur beyond all our imagining. Yet in the crucified Jesus we see revealed another kind of grandeur: our own greatness, the grandeur which belongs to every man and woman by the simple fact that we have a human face and heart. In the words of Saint Anthony of Padua, “Christ, who is your life, hangs before you, so that you can gaze upon the cross as if in a mirror… If you look upon him, you will be able to see the greatness of your dignity and worth … Nowhere else can we better recognize our own value, than by looking into the mirror of the cross” (Sermones dominicales et festivi, III, pp. 213-214). Jesus, the Son of God, died for you, for me, for each of us. In this way he gave us concrete proof of how great and precious we are in the eyes of God, the only eyes capable of seeing beyond all appearances and of peering into the depths of our being. As we make the Way of the Cross, let us ask God to grant us this gaze of truth and love, so that, in union with him, we may become free and good.
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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. R. Amen. Let us pray. A moment of silence follows.
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Lord God, almighty Father, you know all things and you see, hidden within our hearts, our great need for you. Grant each of us the humility to acknowledge this need. Free our mind from the ridiculous pretension that we can master the mystery which embraces us. Free our will from the presumption, equally naive and unfounded, that we can create our own happiness and the meaning of our lives. Enlighten and purify our inner eye, and enable us to recognize, free of all hypocrisy, the evil which lies within us. But grant us too, in the light of the cross and resurrection of your only Son, the certainty that, united to him and sustained by him, we too can overcome evil with good. Lord Jesus, help us, in this spirit, to walk behind your cross. R. Amen.
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First Station Jesus is condemned to death V. (genuflecting) We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you. R. Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world. From the Gospel of John 19:6-7, 12, 16 When the chief priests and the officers saw Jesus, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no crime in him.” The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and by that law he ought to die, because he has made himself the Son of God” … Upon this, Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend; every one who makes himself a king sets himself against Caesar.” Then he handed him over to them to be crucified. Meditation Why was Jesus, the one who “went about doing good” (Acts 10:38), condemned to death? This question will accompany us along the Way of the Cross, even as it accompanies us throughout our lives.
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In the Gospels we find a true answer: the Jewish leaders wanted his death because they understood that Jesus considered himself the Son of God. We also find an answer that the Jews used as a pretext, in order to obtain his condemnation from Pilate: Jesus pretended to be a king of this world, the king of the Jews. But behind this answer there opens up an abyss, to which the Gospels and indeed all of Sacred Scripture direct our gaze: Jesus died for our sins. And on an even deeper level, he died for us, he died because God loves us and he loves us even to giving us his only Son, that we might have life through him (cf. Jn 3:16-17). It is to ourselves, then, that we must look: to the evil and the sin which dwell within us and which all too often we pretend to ignore. Yet all the more should we turn our eyes to the God who is rich in mercy, and who has called us his friends (cf. Jn 15:15). Thus the Way of the Cross and the entire journey of our life becomes a way of penance, pain and conversion, but also of gratitude, faith and joy.
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All: Our Father, who art in heaven; hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. At the Cross her station keeping, Stood the mournful Mother weeping, Close to Jesus to the last.
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Final Hymn R. Crux fidelis, inter omnes arbor una nobilis, Nulla talem silva profert, flore, fronde, germine! Dulce lignum dulci clavo dulce pondus sustinens. 1. Pange, lingua, gloriosi prœlium certaminis, Et super Crucis trophÌo dic triumphum nobilem, Qualiter Redemptor orbis immolatus vicerit. R. 2. De parentis protoplasti fraude factor condolens, Quando pomi noxialis morte morsu corruit Ipse lignum tunc notavit, damna ligni ut solveret. R.
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