Pope Leo XIV will preside tonight, at 9:15 PM, in the Colosseum over the traditional Good Friday Way of the Cross, one of the most awe-inspiring celebrations of Roman Holy Week and one of the liturgical acts with the greatest universal projection of the pontificate. The meditations prepared for this year, written by the Franciscan Francesco Patton, propose an intense and very concrete reading of the Passion, with constant references to the abuse of power, the suffering of the innocent, and the obligation to live the faith not as an abstract refuge, but in the midst of pain, injustice, and the wounds of the world.
Holy See · Press Office
The texts of the meditations and prayers proposed this year for the stations of the Way of the Cross on Good Friday in the Colosseum have been written by the Reverend Father Francesco Patton, O.F.M.
Introduction
The Via Dolorosa unfolds through the alleyways of the Old City of Jerusalem and leads us along Jesus’ path from the place of his condemnation to that of his crucifixion and burial, which is also the place of his resurrection.
It is not a journey amid devout and silent people. As in the times of Jesus, we find ourselves walking in a chaotic, noisy, and bustling environment, among people who share faith in him, but also among others who mock and insult. This is everyday life.
The Way of the Cross is not the path of one who lives in an antiseptically devout world and abstract recollection, but the exercise of one who knows that faith, hope, and charity must be incarnated in the real world, where the believer is continually challenged and must constantly make Jesus’ way of proceeding his own.
Saint Francis of Assisi, whose eighth centenary of death is being celebrated this year, describes our Christian life with words from the Apostle Peter; reminding us that «our Lord Jesus Christ, whose footsteps we must follow, called friend to the one who betrayed him and offered himself spontaneously to those who crucified him» (Unapproved Rule XXII, 2: FF 56; cf. 1 P 2,21). The Poverello exhorts us to fix our gaze on Jesus: «Let us all, brothers, look to the Good Shepherd, who to save his sheep endured the passion of the cross» (Admonitions VI: FF 155).
As we walk this Way of the Cross, let us welcome Saint Francis’s invitation to make a journey in the footsteps of Jesus that is not merely ritual or intellectual, but that engages our whole person and our whole life: «Offer your bodies and carry his holy cross on your shoulders, and follow to the end his most holy precepts» (Office of the Passion of the Lord XV,13: FF 303).
I station
Jesus is condemned to death
From the Gospel according to Saint John (19,9-11)
[Pilate] went back into the praetorium and said to Jesus: «Where are you from?». But Jesus gave him no answer. Pilate said to him: «Do you refuse to speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and also to crucify you?». Jesus answered him: «You would have no authority over me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you has committed a greater sin».
From the writings of Saint Francis of Assisi (Letter to the Faithful II, 28-29: FF 191)
Those who have received the power to judge others, let them exercise judgment with mercy, as they themselves wish to obtain mercy from the Lord. For there will be judgment without mercy for those who have not shown mercy.
In your dialogue with Pilate, Lord Jesus, you unmask every human presumption of power. Even today, some believe they have received unlimited authority and think they can use and abuse it at will. Your words to the Roman governor leave no room for ambiguity: «You would have no authority over me unless it had been given you from above» (Jn 19,11).
Francis of Assisi, who simply tried to follow in your footsteps, reminds us that every authority will have to answer to God for its own way of exercising the power received: the power to judge, but also the power to start a war or end it; the power to educate toward violence or peace; the power to fuel the desire for revenge or reconciliation; the power to use the economy to oppress peoples or to free them from misery; the power to trample human dignity or to protect it; the power to promote and defend life or to reject and suppress it.
Each one of us is also called to answer for the power we exercise in everyday life. You, Jesus, tell him: make good use of the power that has been given to you and do not forget that whatever you do to a human being, especially if small and fragile, you do to me; and it is to me that you will have to answer for it one day.
Let us pray saying: Remind me, Jesus.
That you identify with every judged person:
Remind me, Jesus.
That I must not let myself be guided by prejudices:
Remind me, Jesus.
That true power is that of love:
Remind me, Jesus.
That mercy triumphs over judgment:
Remind me, Jesus.
That I must choose the good, even if it costs:
Remind me, Jesus.
II station
Jesus takes up his cross
From the Gospel according to Saint John (19,14-17)
It was the day of Preparation of the Passover, about noon. Pilate said to the Jews: «Here is your king». They shouted: «Let him die! Let him die! Crucify him!». Pilate said to them: «Shall I crucify your king?». The chief priests answered: «We have no other king but Caesar». Then Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified, and they took him away. Carrying the cross by himself, Jesus went out of the city to the place called «the Skull», in Hebrew «Golgotha».
From the writings of Saint Francis of Assisi (Admonitions V, 7-8: FF 154)
Even if you were the most beautiful and richest of all and even if you performed such wonders that you put demons to flight, all that would be harmful to you, and nothing belongs to you and you cannot glory in any of that. In this we can glory: in our infirmities and in carrying daily the holy cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The word “cross” produces in us a reaction of rejection rather than desire. It is easier for the temptation to flee from it to arise in us than the longing to embrace it.
Jesus, I am sure it was the same when they laid the cross on your shoulders. In fact, in Gethsemane you had asked the Father to take that cup away from you, while wanting with all your being to fulfill his will. The cross was the most terrible and painful torment, reserved for slaves, for irredeemable criminals, and for those cursed by God.
And yet, you embraced it and carried it on your shoulders, and then let yourself be carried by it. Not because it was beautiful or attractive, but out of love for us. Lifting its heavy burden, you knew that you were taking away from us the weight of the evil that crushes us and carrying the sin that ruins our existence. By embracing the cross and carrying it on your shoulders, you embraced our fragility and took charge of our humanity. You carried on your shoulders our slaveries, our crimes, and even our curse.
Free us, Jesus, from fear of the cross. Grant us the grace to follow you along your same path and to have no other glory than that of your cross.
Let us pray saying: Free us, Lord.
From the desire for human glory:
Free us, Lord.
From the temptation to ignore the one who suffers:
Free us, Lord.
From worrying only about ourselves:
Free us, Lord.
From fear of committing ourselves in fidelity:
Free us, Lord.
From fear and rejection of the cross:
Free us, Lord.
III station
Jesus falls for the first time
From the Gospel according to Saint John (12,24-25)
Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.
From the writings of Saint Francis of Assisi (Admonitions XXII, 3: FF 172)
Blessed is the servant who does not rush to excuse himself and humbly endures the shame and reproach for a sin he did not commit.
Your existence, Jesus, was a continuous humbling and descending. Even being God, you emptied yourself to become man. From being rich, you became poor. And at the end of your mission, while carrying on your shoulders the weight of all humanity, you fell on the hard stones of the Via Dolorosa, the road that those condemned to death walked before the people of Jerusalem, who gathered there as if it were a spectacle.
It is the anticipation of an even deeper humbling: the descent into hell, the fall into the mystery of death, where we all fall at the end of this earthly life. But yours is the fall to the ground of the grain of wheat, which is willing to die to bear fruit.
Help us also to choose to be below, at the feet of others, rather than seeking to be above and dominate them. Help us to learn the path of humility even from the experience of our falls and humiliations, and to know how to bear in peace the offenses and injustices suffered.
Make us feel you close, precisely and above all when we fall, so close that we realize that it is you who lifts us up and sets us back on the path. And make us also learn to trust in the earth, like the grain of wheat, knowing that death, thanks to you, is the womb of eternal life.
Let us pray saying: Lift us up, Jesus.
When we fall because of our fragility:
Lift us up, Jesus.
When we fall because someone makes us stumble:
Lift us up, Jesus.
When we fall because of wrong decisions:
Lift us up, Jesus.
When we fall into despair:
Lift us up, Jesus.
When we fall into the mystery of death:
Lift us up, Jesus.
IV station
Jesus meets his Mother
From the Gospel according to Saint John (19,25-27)
Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.
From the writings of Saint Francis of Assisi (Approved Rule VI, 8: FF 91)
Let each one confidently make known to the other his need, because, if a mother cares for and loves her child in the flesh, how much more lovingly should each one love and care for his spiritual brother?
It is normal for the mother to be at the beginning of our existence. It is not normal for the mother to be at our side when it is time to die, because it means that life has been taken from us: by an illness, by an accident, by violence, by despair. Mary, the woman from whom you, Jesus, were begotten, was at your side also on your way to Calvary and is with you at the foot of the cross.
You ask her to continue generating and to remain the mother of the beloved disciple, of each one of us, of the Church, of this new humanity that is being born precisely in the hour in which you give your life and die. In the most solemn hour of your mission and before bringing everything to fulfillment, you first ask her to welcome each one of us; and then you ask us to receive her. Because the Mother always precedes. At the wedding at Cana she had even preceded you.
O Mary, cast a gaze of tenderness on each one of us, but above all on the many, so many mothers who today, like you, see their own children arrested, tortured, condemned, murdered. Have a gaze of tenderness for the mothers who are awakened in the middle of the night by heartbreaking news, and for those who watch over a child in the hospital whose life is fading away. And grant us a maternal heart, to understand and share the suffering of others, and to learn, in this way too, what it means to love.
Let us pray saying: Console, O Mother.
The mothers who have lost their children:
Console, O Mother.
The orphans, especially because of wars:
Console, O Mother.
The migrants, the displaced, and the refugees:
Console, O Mother.
Those who suffer tortures and unjust penalties:
Console, O Mother.
The desperate who have lost the meaning of life:
Console, O Mother.
Those who die alone:
Console, O Mother.
V station
Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the cross
From the Gospel according to Saint Mark (15,21)
As they were going out, they met a Cyrenian named Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, who was coming in from the country, and they pressed him to carry his cross.
From the writings of Saint Francis of Assisi (Admonitions XVIII,1: FF 167)
Blessed is the man who bears with his neighbor in his weakness as he would wish him to bear with him if he were in a similar situation.
Simon of Cyrene was not a volunteer. He did not take charge of you voluntarily, Jesus, giving you a hand to carry the cross. He probably barely knew who you were. However, by helping you carry the cross, something inside him changed, to the point that he would transmit to his sons, Alexander and Rufus, the profound meaning of that path made alongside you, and they would become witnesses of your Passover in the first Christian community.
Even today there are many people who decide to do something good for others all over the world. There are thousands of volunteers who, in extreme situations, risk their lives to help those who need food, education, medical care, justice. Many of them do not even believe in you; however —even without realizing it— they continue to help you carry the cross, and while they take charge of other people of flesh and blood, in reality they are —once again— taking charge of you.
Make us, O Lord, also learn to offer our neighbor that support that we would wish to be offered to us, if we found ourselves in the same situation. Help us to be empathetic and compassionate people, not with words but with deeds and in truth.
Let us pray saying: Make us attentive, Lord.
To the people we meet:
Make us attentive, Lord.
To the poor, to those who suffer, and to the discarded:
Make us attentive, Lord.
To those who are alone and helpless:
Make us attentive, Lord.
To those who fall behind and fall:
Make us attentive, Lord.
To those who have no one to listen to them:
Make us attentive, Lord.
VI station
Veronica wipes the face of Jesus
From the Gospel according to Saint John (12,20-21)
Among those who had come up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.”
From the writings of Saint Francis of Assisi (Exposition of the Our Father 4: FF 269)
Thy kingdom come: so that you may reign in us by grace and bring us to your kingdom, where the vision of you is manifest, the love of you perfect, the companionship of you blessed, the enjoyment of you eternal.
What the Psalms had sung as «the fairest among men» (Ps 45,3), now bears the features of the Suffering Servant prophesied by Isaiah, «with no beauty or majesty to attract our eyes, no appearance that we should desire him» (Is 53,2).
Veronica preserves your image, Jesus. She was able to obtain it thanks to that act of charity: wiping your face covered in blood and dust. Veronica does not transmit to us the memory of a posed image, but that of the Man of Sorrows, who has healed us by means of his own wounds.
Help us, Jesus, to cultivate the desire to see your face. Grant us the grace you gave to the apostles of seeing you luminous and transfigured. But help us, above all, to have Veronica’s attentive gaze, which knows how to recognize you also in your disfigured beauty. And make us capable of wiping, today, your face, still covered in dust and blood, disfigured by every act that tramples on the dignity of any human person.
Let us pray saying: Help us to recognize you, Jesus.
When your face is disfigured:
Help us to recognize you, Jesus.
In every person condemned by prejudices:
Help us to recognize you, Jesus.
In the poor deprived of their dignity:
Help us to recognize you, Jesus.
In women victims of trafficking and reduced to slavery:
Help us to recognize you, Jesus.
In children whose childhood has been stolen and future damaged:
Help us to recognize you, Jesus.
VII station
Jesus falls a second time
From the Gospel according to Saint John (13,3-5)
Jesus knew that everything had been given him by the Father, and that he had come from God and was returning to God. So he rose from supper, laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel around his waist.
From the writings of Saint Francis of Assisi (Unapproved Rule V, 13-14: FF 20)
No brother should do or say anything bad to another; rather, by the charity of the Spirit, let them serve and obey one another willingly.
Your whole life, Jesus, has been a continuous bending down and humbling yourself. When you washed your disciples’ feet at the Last Supper, you left an example, a teaching, and a prophecy: the example of service, the teaching of fraternal love, and the prophecy of giving your life. Francis of Assisi was so deeply impressed by that humbling of yours that he wanted to advise us to wash each other’s feet, that is, to always be ready to serve our brothers. And he wanted this same Gospel to be read to him on the afternoon of October 3, eight centuries ago, shortly before dying.
In your loving us to the extreme, to the point of giving your life for us, the prophecy of your resurrection is already contained, because such great love is stronger than death. Such great love reveals the ultimate meaning of loving: to lead us to the very life of God.
When you fall, Jesus, you do so to lift us from our falls. When you fall, you do so to lift up the one who remains on the ground crushed by injustice, by lies, by every form of exploitation and every type of violence, by the misery produced by an economy directed toward individual profit rather than the common good. When you fall, you do so to lift me up too.
Let us pray saying: Lift us up, Lord.
When our mistakes crush us:
Lift us up, Lord.
When the weight of responsibility oppresses us:
Lift us up, Lord.
When we fall into depression:
Lift us up, Lord.
When we fail in our decisions:
Lift us up, Lord.
When we are dragged down by an addiction:
Lift us up, Lord.
VIII station
Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem
From the Gospel according to Saint Luke (23,27-31)
A large crowd of people followed him, including many women who mourned and lamented him. But Jesus turned to them and said: “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children, for indeed, the days are coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed.’ At that time people will say to the mountains, ‘Fall upon us!’, and to the hills, ‘Cover us!’, for if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
From the writings of Saint Francis of Assisi (Exposition of the Our Father 5: FF 270)
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven: so that we may love you with all our heart, always thinking of you; with all our soul, always desiring you; with all our mind, directing all our intentions to you, seeking in everything your honor; and with all our strength, expending all our strength and the senses of soul and body in the service of your love and nothing else; and so that we may love our neighbor as ourselves, drawing all to your love as much as we can, rejoicing in the good of others as in our own and pitying them in their misfortunes, and giving no one any occasion to stumble.
Jesus, women always followed and helped you, from the beginning of your preaching. They continue to do so now, remaining also at the foot of the cross. Where there is suffering or need, there are women: in hospitals and nursing homes, in therapeutic and welcoming communities, in foster homes with the most fragile minors, in the most remote places of the mission to open schools and health centers, and in areas of war and conflict to aid the wounded and console the survivors.
Women took you seriously, they also took seriously these harsh words of yours. For centuries they have wept for themselves and for their children; detained and imprisoned during a demonstration, deported by policies lacking compassion, shipwrecked in desperate journeys of hope, annihilated in war zones, suppressed in extermination camps.
Women continue to weep. Grant us also, Lord, to each one of us, a compassionate heart, a maternal heart, and the capacity to feel as our own the suffering of others. Continue to grant us tears, Lord, so as not to dissipate our conscience in the darkness of indifference, to continue being human.
Let us pray saying: Grant us tears, Lord.
To weep for the disasters of wars:
Grant us tears, Lord.
To weep for massacres and genocides:
Grant us tears, Lord.
To weep with mothers and wives:
Grant us tears, Lord.
To weep for the cynicism of the powerful:
Grant us tears, Lord.
To weep for our indifference:
Grant us tears, Lord.
IX station
Jesus falls a third time
From the Gospel according to Saint John (14,6-7)
Jesus said to him [Thomas]: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
From the writings of Saint Francis of Assisi (Unapproved Rule XXIII, 3: FF 64)
We thank you because, just as through your Son you created us, so, through your holy love with which you loved us, you made him, true God and true man, to be born of the glorious ever Virgin most blessed holy Mary, and you willed that we, captives, be redeemed by his cross and blood and death.
You who were born «for us on the way» (St. Francis, Office of the Passion of the Lord XV,7: FF 303), now, for the third time, you fall on the painful way that leads you to Calvary.
Your triple fall reminds us that there is no fall of ours in which you are not at our side. Yes, because you are with us in each of our fragilities, and you can and want to lift us from each of our falls, because you want each one of us, with you, to reach the Father and find life, true life, eternal life, which nothing and no one can take from us.
On the way, in your footsteps, it does not matter how many times we fall, what matters is that you are at our side and are willing to lift us up once more, countless times, because your love, your forgiveness, and your mercy are infinitely greater than our fragility.
Sustain us in our unbelief and grant us the grace to believe that you can lift us up.
Let us pray saying: Use us, Jesus.
To lift up all who fall:
Use us, Jesus.
To lift up those who remain fallen:
Use us, Jesus.
To lift up the most fragile people:
Use us, Jesus.
To lift up those we think “deserved it”:
Use us, Jesus.
To lift up those who seem irredeemable:
Use us, Jesus.
X station
Jesus is stripped of his garments
From the Gospel according to Saint John (19,23-24)
After they had crucified Jesus, the soldiers took his garments and divided them into four parts, one for each soldier. They also took his tunic, but since it was seamless, woven in one piece from the top down, they said to one another, “Let’s not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it will be,” so that the passage of scripture might be fulfilled that says: They divided my garments among them, and for my vesture they cast lots. This is what the soldiers did.
From the writings of Saint Francis of Assisi (Letter to the Entire Order, 28-29: FF 221)
Behold, brothers, the humility of God and pour out your hearts before him; humble yourselves also, that you may be exalted by him. Therefore, hold nothing back for yourselves, so that he who gives himself to you totally may receive you totally.
You yourself, Jesus, had decided to strip yourself of divine glory to clothe yourself in «the true flesh of our humanity and fragility» (St. Francis, Letter to the Faithful II,4: FF 181). And now they tear off your garments, in the cruel attempt to humiliate you and strip you also of your human dignity.
It is an attempt that is repeated continually in our days. Authoritarian regimes do it, when they force prisoners to remain semi-naked in an empty cell or courtyard. Torturers do it, who do not limit themselves to removing garments, but tear off skin and flesh. Those who authorize and use forms of inspection and control that do not respect the dignity of the person do it. Rapists and abusers who treat victims as objects do it. The entertainment industry does it, when it flaunts nudity to gain one more spectator. The world of information does it, when it strips people before public opinion. And sometimes we do it too, with our curiosity that does not respect either modesty, intimacy, or the privacy of others.
Remind us, Lord, that when we do not recognize the dignity of others, we obscure our own, and every time we approve or have an inhuman behavior toward any person, we ourselves become less human.
Let us pray saying: Clothe us, Jesus.
With your infinite humility:
Clothe us, Jesus.
With respect for every human being:
Clothe us, Jesus.
With the feeling of compassion:
Clothe us, Jesus.
With a renewed sense of modesty:
Clothe us, Jesus.
With the strength to defend the dignity of every person:
Clothe us, Jesus.
XI station
Jesus is nailed to the cross
From the Gospel according to Saint John (19,17-19)
Carrying the cross by himself, Jesus went out of the city to the place called «the Skull», in Hebrew «Golgotha». There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus in the middle. Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read: “Jesus the Nazorean, the King of the Jews.”
From the writings of Saint Francis of Assisi (Canticle of the Creatures 23-26: FF 263)
Praised be You, my Lord, / through those who forgive for Your love, / and bear sickness and trial. / Blessed are those who endure in peace, / for by You, Most High, they will be crowned.
Nailed to the cross like a criminal, but with a title that reveals your kingship, O Jesus, you show us what true power is. It is not that of one who considers that he can dispose of the lives of others by causing death, but that of one who can truly overcome death by giving life and can give life even by accepting death. You manifest that true power is not that of one who uses force and violence to impose himself, but that of one who is capable of taking upon himself the evil of humanity —ours, mine—; and annulling it with the power of love that is manifested in forgiveness. You are King and you reign from the cross; you do not make use of the apparent power of armies, but of the apparent impotence of love, which lets itself be nailed. You are King and your cross becomes the axis around which history and the entire universe revolve, so as not to fall into the hell of the inability to love.
You, crucified King, remind us that if we want to be partakers of your kingship, we too must learn to forgive for love of you and face the difficulties of life in peace, because what overcomes is not love by force, but the force of love.
Let us pray saying: Teach us to love.
When we suffer an injustice:
Teach us to love.
When we desire revenge:
Teach us to love.
When we are tempted by violence:
Teach us to love.
When we consider forgiveness impossible:
Teach us to love.
When we feel crucified:
Teach us to love.
XII station
Jesus dies on the cross
From the Gospel according to Saint John (19,28-30)
After this, aware that everything was now finished, so that the scripture might be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I thirst.” There was a vessel filled with common wine. So they put a sponge soaked in the wine on a sprig of hyssop and put it up to his mouth. When Jesus had taken the wine, he said, “It is finished.” And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit.
From the writings of Saint Francis of Assisi (Letter to the Faithful II, 11-13: FF 184)
And the will of the Father was that his blessed and glorious Son, whom he gave to us and who was born for us, should offer himself through his own blood as sacrifice and oblation on the altar of the cross; not for himself, by whom all things were made, but for our sins, leaving us an example, that we might follow in his footsteps.
“It is finished.” It does not mean that everything is over, but that the reason why you, Jesus, became one of us has reached its fullness; you have fulfilled the mission the Father entrusted to you and now you can return to him and take us with you.
From now on we know that by letting ourselves be drawn to you, by raising our gaze to you, we find ourselves before the One who reconciles us, who cancels our “debt,” who introduces us into the Sanctuary that is the very life of God. We find ourselves before the One who, by realizing the end of the incarnation, gives us the possibility of realizing the profound meaning of our own life: to be children of God, to be God’s masterpiece.
Help us, Lord, to welcome the gift of the Holy Spirit that you poured out on us already in the hour of your death on the cross, and make it so that with you we too may pass from this world to the Father.
Let us pray saying: Give us your Spirit, Lord.
So that we may become new creatures and live in God:
Give us your Spirit, Lord.
So that we may experience that our debt is canceled:
Give us your Spirit, Lord.
So that we may pray “Abba, Father”:
Give us your Spirit, Lord.
So that we may welcome every person as brother and sister:
Give us your Spirit, Lord.
So that we may discover the ultimate meaning of life:
Give us your Spirit, Lord.
XIII station
Jesus is taken down from the cross
From the Gospel according to Saint John (19,38-39)
After this, Joseph of Arimathea, secretly a disciple of Jesus for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate if he could remove the body of Jesus. And Pilate permitted it. So he came and took his body. Nicodemus, the one who previously had visited him at night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing about one hundred pounds.
From the writings of Saint Francis of Assisi (Canticle of the Creatures 27-31: FF 263)
Praised be You, my Lord, / through our sister bodily Death, / from whom no living man can escape. / Woe to those who die in mortal sin! / Blessed are those whom death will find in Your most holy will, / for the second death shall do them no harm.
Jesus has just died, and his death already begins to bear its first fruits. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, who were disciples of Jesus but in secret, because they were afraid to expose themselves, now have the courage to ask Pilate for his body. They thus perform an act of human piety, that of taking a condemned man down from the cross and burying him with dignity and respect.
There should never be corpses that are not returned or buried; the mothers, families, and friends of the condemned should never be forced to humiliate themselves before the authorities so that they return the martyred remains of a loved one. Even the body of a dead person retains the dignity of the person and cannot be outraged, hidden, destroyed, retained, or deprived of a dignified burial. Not only the body of a decent person, but also the body of a criminal deserves respect.
O Jesus, you were unjustly captured, tortured, judged, condemned, and murdered, but your body was returned and honored; make our time, which has lost respect for the living, at least maintain it for the dead.
Let us pray saying: Teach us piety.
To feel the suffering of the imprisoned:
Teach us piety.
To be in solidarity with political prisoners:
Teach us piety.
To understand the families of hostages:
Teach us piety.
To weep for the dead under the rubble:
Teach us piety.
To have respect for all the deceased:
Teach us piety.
XIV station
Jesus is placed in the tomb
From the Gospel according to Saint John (19,40-42)
[Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus] took the body of Jesus and bound it with funeral cloths along with the spices, according to the Jewish method of preparing for burial. Now in the place where he had been crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been buried. So they laid Jesus there because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand.
From the writings of Saint Francis of Assisi (Letter to the Faithful II, 61-62: FF 202)
And to him who has endured so much for us, who has brought us so many goods and will bring us more in the future, and to God, may every creature in heaven, on earth, in the sea, and in the depths give praise, glory, honor, and blessing, because he is our strength and our fortress, and only he is good, only he is most high, only he is omnipotent, admirable, glorious, and only he is holy, praiseworthy, and blessed for the infinite ages of ages. Amen.
Everything began in a garden, Eden, which our first parents received as a gift and to be cared for, and from which they were exiled for not trusting in God. Everything begins again in a garden, where Jesus was buried and where he rose; a place in which the old creation, fragile and mortal, is transformed into new creation, which participates in the very life of God. This place is the door through which Jesus descended into hell, and it is the entrance to Paradise, no longer earthly and passing, but heavenly and definitive. This is the place of the last act of piety and the last tears shed over the body of the dead Christ. It is the place of the first encounter with the risen Christ, alive forever, recognizable only when he calls us by name or opens our eyes, and impossible to hold. The place where Mary Magdalene receives the mandate to announce that death has been conquered, because Jesus of Nazareth has risen, he is the Lord, the Living One who can no longer die.
Since then, we too are buried —thanks to Baptism— with Jesus, in that same garden, with the certain hope that the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life also to our mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in us (cf. Rom 8,11). We thank you, Lord, because you have given a sure foundation to our hope of eternal life.
Let us pray saying: Come, Lord Jesus.
To walk with us in the Garden:
Come, Lord Jesus.
To wipe the tears from our eyes:
Come, Lord Jesus.
To give us a certain hope:
Come, Lord Jesus.
To remove the stone that oppresses our heart:
Come, Lord Jesus.
To make us glimpse Paradise:
Come, Lord Jesus.
Final invocation and blessing
Holy Father:
At the end of this Way of the Cross, let us make our own the prayer with which Saint Francis invites us to live our existence as a journey of progressive participation in the relationship of love that unites the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Almighty, eternal, just, and merciful God, grant us, wretched as we are, to do for you what we know you want, and always to want what pleases you, so that, interiorly cleansed, interiorly enlightened, and set aflame by the fire of the Holy Spirit, we may follow the footsteps of your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and by your grace alone reach you, Most High, who in perfect Trinity and simple Unity live and reign and are glorified, God almighty, for all the ages of ages. Amen.
Let us conclude with the ancient biblical blessing (cf. Nm 6,24-26), with which Saint Francis used to bless the friars and all the people, to the point of becoming “his” blessing (cf. Blessing for Br. Leo: FF 262).
The Lord be with you.
℟. And with your spirit.
The Lord bless you and keep you.
℟. Amen.
May he show his face to you and be merciful to you.
℟. Amen.
May he turn his face toward you and grant you peace.
℟. Amen.
And may the blessing of almighty God, Father, ✠ Son ✠ and Holy ✠ Spirit, come down upon you and remain forever.
℟. Amen.