Fourth Station — Jesus Meets His Mother

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. We adore You, O Christ, and we praise You, because by Your holy Cross You have redeemed the world. The Fourth Station. Jesus meets His Mother. She had been waiting. Pushing through the crowd. Her heart beating in fear and love. And then, in the press of the soldiers and the gawkers, she saw Him. And He saw her. There were no words spoken that the Gospels record. Just a look. The look between a mother and her son in the worst moment of his life and hers. Mary remembered Simeon's prophecy from when Jesus was a baby. A sword will pierce your own soul too. The sword was now driving home. Lord, this is one of the most human moments in all of Scripture. The Son of God making eye contact with His mother on the way to crucifixion. Mary, mother of sorrows, you are also my mother. Jesus gave you to me from the Cross when He said to John, Behold your mother. So tonight I come to you the way Jesus came to you on the road. With my own pain. With the heaviness I am carrying. With my eyes full of what I cannot say. Look at me the way you looked at your Son. Without flinching. Without making it smaller than it is. With the love of a mother who has seen suffering and not turned away. Mary, intercede for the mothers tonight who are watching their children suffer. The mothers in cancer wards. The mothers waiting for a phone call about an addicted child. The mothers grieving children they have buried. The mothers of soldiers in war zones. Stand with them as you stood on the way to Calvary. Intercede for the children who are watching their parents suffer. The aging mother slipping into dementia. The father whose heart is failing. The parent who has been diagnosed too early. Give them grace. Intercede for me in whatever I am carrying tonight. You know it. You have known it since I first prayed it. Take it to your Son. 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. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.