Spiritual Practices for Eastertide
Stations of the Cross: 7-9
Roots of Life Community – Jesus is Crucified
Preparing for Eastertide
There will be other offerings presenting throughout the 50 days spanning from Easter Sunday to Pentecost. But, it’s good to prepare our hearts, souls and minds for the journey ahead.
The Stations of the Cross
To enter into Eastertide, now through Sunday morning, I’d like share a practice of meditation called The Stations of the Cross.
The Stations of the Cross is a practice that began in the 1500s. It’s a contemplative walk through the story of Jesus’ final days and hours in his human body on this earth. Here are fifteen stations of the cross:
Jesus Is Condemned
Jesus Carries His Cross
Jesus Falls for the First Time
Jesus Sees His Mother Mary
Simon Helps Jesus Carry His Cross
Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus
Jesus Falls a Second Time
Jesus Comforts the Women of Jerusalem
Jesus Falls a Third Time
Jesus Is Stripped Bare of His Earthly Possessions
Jesus Is Nailed to the Cross
Jesus Dies on the Cross
Jesus Is Taken Down from the Cross
Jesus Is Laid in the Tomb
Jesus Gives Us Glimmers of Hope
Steps and Application
Using excerpts from Clàudio Carvalhaes’ Liturgies from Below: Praying with the People at the End of the World and Henri Nouwen’s Walk with Jesus: Stations of the Cross, each day I’ll post the stations—three at a time—along with a verse from the Sermon on the Mount and a prayer.
There are really no rules of engagement in regards to how we should approach the stations. You can pray through each one or simply hold each in silence. Some people like to read them as a daily office, hour-by-hour. Others like to read them all at once. Do what feels right to you.
My only advise is that you bring true, most authentic yourself to these stations. Perhaps you’d like to worship with a song alongside each station. Maybe you’d like to go through a yoga flow in between each reading. You might prefer to go into a period of solitude as you hold each station in silence. Or, maybe you’d like to go through the stations in community. Again, please do whatever feels good to you.
This practice will be our Wednesday bible study lesson for this week and this month’s spiritual practice of Black-Eyed Bible Study. However, I’m also inviting free subscribers to participate as well since this practice will be our hope challenge for the rest of the week.
Invocation
Find a quiet time and space to lean in. Light a candle, maybe. Take a deep inhale. Hold it for one heartbeat and then exhale. Let’s begin.
Shalom,
Marcie
Roots of Life Community – Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem
STATIONS OF THE CROSS: SEVEN, EIGHT, NINE
Jesus is deeply connected to the earth on which he walks. He observes the forces of nature; he learns from them, teaches about them, and reveals that the God of Creation is the same God who sent him to announce the good news to the poor, sight to the blind, and freedom to the prisoners.
— Henri Nouwen, Walk with Jesus: Stations of the Cross,
SEVEN: JESUS FALLS A SECOND TIME
In spite of the help Jesus receives from Simon, he falls again under the weight of the cross. Here, Jesus knows what it is like to be disabled . . . to be physically weak . . . to grow old and have the body break down. There is no pain that Jesus does not know.
Clàudio Carvalhaes
Sermon on the Mount
O the Bliss of those whose motives are absolutely pure, for they will some day be able to see God! Matthew 5:8, William Barclay: The New Daily Study Bible – The Gospel of Matthew, Vol. 1
Prayer Adapted from Henri Nouwen
Jesus, Manna & Body, Spirit & Blood, Bread & Wine, When a deep fatigue arises in our hearts that makes it seem impossible for us to go on, and everything looks like one big failure, and all of our efforts seem to have come to nothing… when all of our dreams are scattered, our hopes dashed, and our aspirations ripped away…when depression takes over and nothing seems to matter anymore— we can remember that you suffered all of this with us when you fell, beaten, carrying your cross. Falling is part of the weight of the cross. May this remembrance be our hope, and may that hope bind us together with all others who have fallen in the world, and may our rising together set us in the right direction towards a more just and loving society.
EIGHT: JESUS MEETS THE WOMEN OF JERUSALEM
Jesus stood with those considered to be “the least” in society. He broke all kinds of social conventions when it came to women. Now, it was their turn to show Jesus their support. What would happen to them when he was gone? His promise was to be with them and all who were oppressed always. The women stood by his side even unto his death.
Clàudio Carvalhaes
Sermon on the Mount
Blessed are those who, from their inner wombs, birth mercy; they shall feel its warm arms embrace them. The 5th Beatitude “Blessed are the Merciful,” Prayer of the Cosmos – An Aramaic Translation
Prayer Adapted from Henri Nouwen
Jesus Our Weeping Savior, You wept over Jerusalem, and you also wept over your friend Lazarus’ death. But your tears flowed into healing. Your grief enclosed both Jerusalem and Lazarus’ tomb with a warm, compassionate embrace. We too must allow our tears to become healing rivers, and our laments to become actions that heal. We too must weep to become more and more human—humbled by heartbreak, tendered and heartsore—dust-of-the-earth, wombs of creation.
NINE: JESUS FALLS A THIRD TIME
Jesus is broken. The last fall is crushing. There is no humanly possible way for him to continue, but he depends on the Divine. His executioners come to move him up the hill where he will die. He is spent, poured out for each one of us.
Clàudio Carvalhaes
Sermon on the Mount
Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don’t like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble. Matthew 5:11-12 The Message
Prayer Adapted from Henri Nouwen
Jesus the Falsely Accused, You held within your body all of the loneliness of a despairing humanity carried in the weight of cross that buckled your knees and pinned you to the ground. You break our hearts, dear Savior, You break our hearts, precious Messiah— When you last reached for help from us, your people, we struck you open hand with a lash of violent rejection. Then we finished the job by pushing and shoving you to your death. Yet, you rose to meet the challenge of your predicament. You still open your palm full of love, and offer the possibility for any human hand to reach back out to you and touch realm of heaven here on earth.
Benediction
O Spacious God, have mercy on us.
O Creator hear us.
O Lady Wisdom, have mercy on us.
O Spirit, hear us.
O The Anointed Son, have mercy on us.
O Christ, hear us.
Amen
This is a communal practice. Please feel welcome to add your prayers, thoughts, questions or reflections in the comments below.
Shalom.