Station Two: Jesus carries his Cross

We adore You, O Christ, and we praise You.

Because by Your holy Cross You have redeemed the world.

When the chief priests and the guards saw Jesus, they cried out: “Crucify him, crucify him!”  So Pilate said to them” “take him yourselves and crucify him.  I find no guilt in him.”  But they cried out: “Away with him,  Away with him!  Crucify him!”  Pilate said to them: “Shall I crucify your king?”  The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar!”  Then he handed Jesus over to be crucified.  They took Jesus, bearing his cross, toward the Place of the Skull, in Hebrew, Golgotha. (John 19: 6, 15 -17)

Who would believe what we have heard?  To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?  He grew up like a sapling before him, like a shoot from the parched earth; there was in him no stately bearing to make us look at him, no appearance that would attract us to him.  He was rejected and avoided by people, a man of suffering accustomed to infirmity, one of those from whom people turn away.  We held him in no esteem.  (Is. 53: 1 – 3)

Let us pray.  Eternal Father, Your Son, Jesus, still carries his Cross in his persecuted brothers and sisters throughout the world.  Make us hold the needs of all people so that we might help them with the same reverence and love as we would help Jesus Himself.

Amen

Processional Song:

This is holy ground.  We’re walking on holy ground.
For the Lord is present, and where God is is holy!
This is holy ground.   We’re walking on holy ground.
For the Lord is present and where God is is holy!

Oh how good it is!  Yes, Lord, how good it is, to be on our journey, on our way to Jesus.  Oh how good it is!
Yes, Lord, how good it is to take up the cross and follow after Jesus.

Stations of the Cross Images courtesy of carmelites.net