The Way of the
Cross of
Our Sorrowful Mother
Meditations by Mother Adela, SCTJM
Foundress
For private use only -©
In the Passion and Crucifixion there are two
characters that paid with their own lives the price of our
redemption: Christ, our Savior and Redeemer, who with His Precious
Blood cleansed us from our sins and opened for us the door to
Heaven, and Mary, our Sorrowful Mother, the co-redemptrix. Because
of her immense love for Jesus, she undergoes the agony of her Son,
is consumed in sorrow and is immersed in the chalice of the
redeeming Blood of Her Son. In this way she completely shares in
the salvific sacrifice of Jesus… all for love of us!
The Way to Calvary was not only walked by
Christ. The Via Dolorosa is also the path Mary walks, accompanying
and consoling her Son. Her accompaniment and consolation are silent
and hidden. From a street corner, she walks witnessing to all the
suffering of Her Son. Mary, from her place, lives the Passion of
her beloved Son, giving Him the fortitude and grace of her love.
First
Station: “Jesus is condemned to Death”
O Sorrowful Mother… What did your heart feel when you heard
pronounced the sentence of death upon your adorable Son? You who
gave Him life, who carried Him in your womb, who nursed Him, who saw
Him grow up, walk, speak… and now you will be a witness to His
death. What sorrow for you, Mother, to see Him walk the rocky and
narrow path that would take Him to His crucifixion! Mary, mother of
the One unjustly condemned, I know you would have wanted to take the
place of Jesus, but you knew it was the moment of His martyrdom...
and all this you kept silently in your heart… You did all this
because you trusted in the love of the Father!
Second
Station: “Jesus Carries His Cross”
O Sorrowful Mother… You who have felt the great sorrow of seeing
your Son with a crown of thorns placed on His tender head; you who
have seen His body scourged, bleeding, and His flesh all bruised…
Now you must see, how without any consideration, in His body so
wounded and in pain, they place upon Him a cross. You, Mother, feel
in your own heart, the weight of the wood which they place upon the
shoulders of your beloved Son. And you Mary, are not able to take
His Cross even though that is what your heart wishes to do... and
all this you kept silently in your heart… You did all this because
you trusted in the love of the Father!
Third
Station: “Jesus falls for the first Time”
O Sorrowful Mother… You who lived to take care
of your Son, how difficult it was for you to see Him there so
defenseless! Mary, all your being reacted and you wanted to go
lift Him up, caress Him, lessen His pain, just as when He was a
child and He would fall you would clean Him, you would heal His
wounds. But, you could not do so, now you had to pray and ask our
Heavenly Father to give Him the strength necessary to continue… and
all this you kept silently in your heart… You did all this because
you trusted in the love of the Father!
Fourth
Station: “Jesus encounters His Mother”
O Sorrowful Mother… Your
Heart can no longer contain your desire to comfort your Son. And so
you go into the crowds shouting the name which many times you called
out to come to eat, to study: “Jesus, Jesus, My Son…!” and you are
finally able to encounter your Son, Jesus. Your eyes filled with
tears and anguish… His eyes filled with pain, solitude, asking of
men a bit of love…. In that moment you were fortified by the love
you had for Him and, with your silent gaze, much more eloquent than
words, you say: “Go forth My Son, there is a meaning for all this
suffering… the salvation of men, of those to whom you wish to give
back the gift and power of being the sons and daughters of Your
Heavenly Father." You return, Mother, silently to your place,
hidden among the crowd, keeping all in your heart… and all this you
kept silently in your heart… You did all this because you trusted in
the love of the Father!
Fifth
Station: “Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the Cross” O
Sorrowful Mother… What relief you felt when you saw that a man was
going to help your poor and exhausted Son carry that heavy cross.
You do not know who the man is, you know he does not do it out of
love or compassion, for they are forcing him to carry the cross of
your Son. What you do know is that you will never forget the face
of that man who alleviated the pain of your Son… you pray and ask
God that while he carries the cross, the Blood of Jesus that runs
down the wood might touch his heart and let him understand how much
Love is revealed in that cross, how much mercy is manifested in that
event in which he plays a role. And you, Mother, will always
remember the face of the stranger who from that moment on became for
you a son... and all this you kept silently in your heart… You did
all this because you trusted in the love of the Father!
Sixth
Station: “Veronica wipes the face of Jesus”
O Sorrowful Mother… you have been praying and imploring the Father
that He move someone’s heart so that they may generously run to the
aid of your Son. You wished for the person to be a woman, so that
with her maternal warmth, she would alleviate so much of the harshness and
roughness that Jesus had received. And when you see Veronica come
close to clean the disfigured face of your Son, you feel as if your
heart would burst. You see how her clean, white veil covers the
bloody and sweaty face of your beloved Son… And you know Mother,
that in response to such a loving act, your Son will leave a mark of
His presence… The image of your Son, imprinted on a white veil…
just as it is engraved in your Immaculate Heart... and all this you
kept silently in your heart… You did all this because you trusted in
the love of the Father!
Seventh
Station: “Jesus fall for the second time”
Oh Sorrowful Mother, you feel as if you are going to fall with
Jesus…you try to go and help Him, but a soldier holds you back. You
feel as if your heart is going to faint. You can imagine the pain
that your Son Jesus must feel as He falls and falls again on the
rocks, scraping His knees and opening more deeply the wounds from
the scourging. Mother, what did you feel? What was your desire? If
only you could get to your beloved Son, and give Him a bit of water,
a bit of tenderness…Mother you wanted to give Him everything as long
as His suffering and fatigue were relieved… and all this you kept
silently in your heart… You did all this because you trusted in the
love of the Father!
Eighth
Station: “The Women of Jerusalem cry for Jesus”
Oh Sorrowful Mother…your tears have moistened the dry
and arid path that your Son walks; your tears of love and sacrifice
mix with the Blood of your Son that falls on the earth. You suffer
seeing the coldness of man before such a painful sight…but suddenly
you find some women compassionately crying at the sight of your Son
so devastated…and you discover that Jesus stops before them…He tells
them not to cry for Him, but to cry instead for themselves and their
children…perhaps they did not understand, Mother, but you did
comprehend the depth of those words from your Son. You knew in your
heart that He was calling them to true repentance, to cry,
therefore, for their own sins. Your beloved Son, amidst such great
suffering continued to be the Great Teacher for mankind… and all
this you kept silently in your heart… You did all this because you
trusted in the love of the Father!
Ninth
Station: “Jesus falls for the third time”
Oh Sorrowful Mother…you see how the soldiers force your Son to speed
up His steps so as to finish with such an uncomfortable mission for
them. They force Him to walk faster, Jesus in His weakness and
exhaustion, trips and falls again. The soldiers yell at Him and
beat Him so that He would stand up…and you, suffering Mother, only
wish you could whisper in His ears those canticles of love, those
verses so tender and sweet, that you sang to Him at night. You want
to hug Him and help Him up so as to reach His final goal, the
cross. He is almost there and your heart is so torn with compassion
for your Son that you only desire that He reach His rest… and all
this you kept silently in your heart… You did all this because you
trusted in the love of the Father!
Tenth
Station: “Jesus is stripped of His clothing”
Oh dear Sorrowful Mother…in this moment you remember
the glorious moment you had Jesus and held Him in your arms amidst
all that poverty in Bethlehem. You wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and
placed Him in a manger. You wished for Him not to be cold, not to
be naked, instead you wanted His immaculate body to be covered with
those baby clothes you had made for Him with so much love. How
painful it was for you, Mary, to see your Son stripped of His
clothes…you who lived to cover Him, protect Him and care for Him,
today see Him defenseless and naked…dying in the same poverty in
which He was born. And suddenly you see, Mother, in the countenance
of Jesus a gesture of profound pain. As they tore the tunic off of
Him, they also tore pieces of His flesh that had stuck to the cloth…
and all this you kept silently in your heart… You did all this
because you trusted in the love of the Father!
Eleventh
Station: “Jesus is nailed to the Cross”
Oh, Sorrowful Mother…you ask yourself if it is not enough, all they
have done to Him, still there is more…. You see how they place your
Son on the cross, not even during His last moments will He have
rest. No, now you see how they tie His wounded body to the cross.
But, Virgin Martyr, your heart was still as you heard the nails
being hammered through His bones. His hands and his feet drilled
through by those nails. You, Mary, received those nails, as if you
were the one being nailed. You wished you could tell the soldiers
that all that was not necessary…they did not need to nail Him to
keep Him on the cross, His love for mankind would have kept Him on
the cross until His death…and all this you kept silently in your
heart… You did all this because you trusted in the love of the
Father!
Twelfth
Station: “Jesus dies on the Cross”
Sorrowful Mother, you are there at the foot of the Cross of your
Son…firm, standing like a queen next to your Son, offering yourself
as a sacrifice of consolation. And you see how a solider pierces
the Heart of your Son with a sword…and your heart, Mary, is pierced
spiritually at that exact moment by the same sword…The indissoluble
union of your heart with the Heart of Jesus is revealed for all
eternity. Your heart mystically receives the effects of the
physical piercing of the heart of your Son. Oh, Mother, your Son
has died and you feel the pain, the emptiness, the loneliness, but
also you rest in knowing that the world, with its hostility, can no
longer hurt Him. How great are you Mary! You, just as your Son
Jesus, have reached the end. It is at the peak of Mount Calvary, on
that cross where your Son is elevated to His throne as King, where
you become queen. Your reign, Mary, is obtained by your great love
and fidelity during such sorrow and pain. Everything seems to be
complete… and all this you kept silently in your heart… You did all
this because you trusted in the love of the Father!
Thirteenth
Station: Jesus’ body is brought down from the Cross and placed in
the arms of his Mother” Oh, Sorrowful
Mother, now you can hold your Son in your arms. It does not seem
real to you that the child you rocked, nursed and laid on your chest
today looks like the remains of a human being. But the only thing
that is important at that moment is to have Him once again in your
maternal arms. You know He cannot feel your caresses or your
kisses, yet you caress and kiss him…you would almost like to erase
the horror done by man through your tenderness and love. Mother,
how you held Him, how you hugged His body so disfigured. You knew
He bore all our faults and sinfulness, that with His pain He healed
the wounds of our sins, that with His devastated being He had
returned to mankind the beauty of our souls. Looking at Him there
in your arms, you thought how He lived only to love and that this
was the greatest proof of His love. And because of this… and all
this you kept silently in your heart… You did all this because you
trusted in the love of the Father!
Fourteenth
Station: “Jesus is placed in the Tomb”
Sorrowful Mother, you never leave your Son, you go with those who
are taking Him to be buried, and you want to accompany Him to His
tomb. You would like to fix His body, dress Him, cover Him with a
white, soft and scented mantle, but none of this is permitted. You
remember at that moment, the nine months you had Him in your womb
where you kept Him with so much love, sheltering and protecting Him
from the abuse of the world. It is in this way that you place Him
in the tomb. It is time to leave Him and seal the tomb. What
sorrow,
Mother, knowing that He stays there and that you must continue here
on earth, confronting the darkness, mockery, indifference, the
disdain that even after death man still has for Him. Mary, you walk
slowly as if not wanting to be separated from your Son…but… a great peace engulfs your
heart pierced by so much sorrow… the peace and joy of
knowing that your Son, very soon, will be RESURRECTED
"Lent is a journey of
conversion in the Holy Spirit, encountering God in our life."
Message of Venerable John Paul II for Lent 1998
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