The Stations of the Cross
All fourteen stations in order, with the versicle said at each, a meditation, and a prayer. Traditionally walked on the Fridays of Lent and on Good Friday, though nothing restricts it to Lent. It takes about twenty-five minutes unhurried, and this page prints as a plain booklet.
How to pray them
Begin with the sign of the cross and the opening prayer. At each station, genuflect and say the versicle; the response is given. Read the meditation, say the prayer, and move on. In a church you walk from one station to the next; at home you stay where you are and move down the page.
Opening prayer
My Lord Jesus Christ, you have made this journey to die for me with love unutterable, and I have so many times unworthily abandoned you. But now I love you with my whole heart, and because I love you, I repent sincerely for having ever offended you. Pardon me, my God, and permit me to accompany you on this journey. You go to die for love of me; I wish also, my beloved Redeemer, to die for love of you.
Saint Alphonsus Liguori, whose Way of the Cross is the one most parishes use.
1. Jesus Is Condemned to Death
V. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
Pilate had the power to release him and the crowd shouted louder. He washed his hands and handed over a man he had just called innocent.
Lord, give me the courage Pilate did not have: to do what is right when it costs me something, and not to call it prudence.
The longer meditation on this station, with narrated audio.
2. Jesus Takes Up His Cross
V. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
He does not have it laid on him against his will. He takes it up — the instrument of his own execution, carried on shoulders already opened by the scourging.
Lord, let me stop arguing with the cross I have been given and pick it up.
The longer meditation on this station, with narrated audio.
3. Jesus Falls the First Time
V. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
The ground of a Jerusalem street, the weight of the beam, and a body that has not slept or eaten. He falls, and there is nothing dignified about it.
Lord, when I fall in the same way I have fallen a hundred times before, keep me from the despair that says there is no point rising.
The longer meditation on this station, with narrated audio.
4. Jesus Meets His Mother
V. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
No word is recorded. A mother who has followed the noise through the streets finds her son under the beam, and they look at each other.
Mother of Sorrows, be with everyone who can only stand and watch someone they love suffer.
The longer meditation on this station, with narrated audio.
5. Simon Helps Jesus Carry the Cross
V. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
Simon of Cyrene was pressed into it by soldiers, coming in from the fields and wanting no part of any of it. He is named in three Gospels for a job he did not choose.
Lord, when the help I am asked for is inconvenient and not mine to give, let me give it anyway.
The longer meditation on this station, with narrated audio.
6. Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus
V. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
She is in none of the Gospels. The Church has kept her anyway, because the tradition preserves something true: someone broke the line to do one small useless kindness.
Lord, let me do the small thing in front of me rather than wait for the large thing I can justify.
The longer meditation on this station, with narrated audio.
7. Jesus Falls the Second Time
V. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
He has already fallen once and been made to get up. Now it happens again, further along, with less left.
Lord, for those who have fallen back into what they had escaped, and cannot bear to be seen there again.
The longer meditation on this station, with narrated audio.
8. Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem
V. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
They weep for him, and he turns and tells them to weep for themselves and their children instead. It is the only thing he says on the whole road.
Lord, turn my pity into repentance, which is the only kind that changes anything.
The longer meditation on this station, with narrated audio.
9. Jesus Falls the Third Time
V. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
The third fall, within sight of the place of execution. He is nearly there and his body has stopped cooperating.
Lord, for everyone whose strength gives out at the end rather than the beginning.
The longer meditation on this station, with narrated audio.
10. Jesus Is Stripped of His Garments
V. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
The wounds have dried into the cloth and the cloth is pulled away. He is exposed in front of a crowd, and the soldiers throw dice for the tunic.
Lord, for everyone whose dignity has been taken in public, and who has had to keep standing there.
The longer meditation on this station, with narrated audio.
11. Jesus Is Nailed to the Cross
V. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
He is laid on the wood and does not resist. The first words from the cross are not for himself: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
Lord, teach me to forgive while it is still happening, not years afterwards when it is safe.
The longer meditation on this station, with narrated audio.
12. Jesus Dies on the Cross
V. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
Three hours of darkness, then the cry, then it is finished. The centurion who ran the execution says: truly, this man was the Son of God.
Lord, by your death, be with everyone who is dying today, and with those sitting beside them.
The longer meditation on this station, with narrated audio.
13. Jesus Is Taken Down from the Cross
V. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
Joseph of Arimathea asks Pilate for the body. It is given to his mother, and she holds him as she held him at the beginning.
Lord, for every parent who has buried a child, and for whom this station is not a meditation.
The longer meditation on this station, with narrated audio.
14. Jesus Is Laid in the Tomb
V. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
A borrowed tomb, a stone rolled across, and the sabbath beginning. For everyone who loved him, the story ends here.
Lord, in the silence of Holy Saturday, teach me to wait for what I cannot yet see.
The longer meditation on this station, with narrated audio.
Closing prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, your Passion and death is the sacrifice that unites earth and heaven and reconciles all people to you. May we who have faithfully reflected on these mysteries follow in your steps and so come to share your glory in heaven, where you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Print it for your parish
Use your browser’s print command and this comes out as a plain booklet, with the navigation and colours dropped and no station broken across a page. Parishes are welcome to print it for a Lenten Friday. Nothing here is ours to charge for.
For the season it belongs to, see Lent and Good Friday; before praying them, many make an examination of conscience. The other devotion prayed on beads is the Rosary.
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