Spiritual Practices for Eastertide
Stations of the Cross: 10-12
María Dolores Gómez de Ávila
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
María Dolores Gómez de Ávila
STATIONS OF THE CROSS: TEN, ELEVEN, TWELVE
Why [should we reflect on] the Stations of the Cross? Because it reminds us that God is here with us, in this place, right now.
—Clàudio Carvalhaes, Liturgies from Below: Praying with the People at the End of the World
TEN: JESUS IS STRIPPED
When we began this journey with Jesus to the cross, we saw that Jesus stood with all who were wrongly accused. As Jesus hangs on the cross, we see that Jesus also reaches out to those who have done wrong, offering mercy and forgiveness. He knows the pain of all who have been stripped, violated, raped, and humiliated. Still, Jesus shows us that love is stronger than hate.
Clàudio Carvalhaes
From Sermon on the Mount
Here’s another old saying that deserves a second look: ‘Eye for eye, tooth for tooth.’ Is that going to get us anywhere? Here’s what I propose: ‘Don’t hit back at all.’ If someone strikes you, stand there and take it. If someone drags you into court and sues for the shirt off your back, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. And if someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously. Matthew 5:38-42 The Message
Prayer Adapted from Henri Nouwen
Jesus, Son of God—Not Mammon, We should not be afraid to lose, nor afraid for those who have lost much —even if all was lost. Jesus, you were stripped bare, left with nothing – so that we would correctly and justly view our own poverty alongside—and not apart from—the poverty of our humanity. May we reflect your immense compassion, when we bravely disrobe from our privileges in order to better serve those who are poor in spirit, stripped of dignity, and impoverished in resources. This is how we discover how to uplift those who are crushed by the weight of the wealthy and the powerful. And this is how we learn how to forgive those who either knowingly or blindly purchase goods that leave marks of despair and oppression. This is how we recover what was taken and hoarded from the least of these. And this is how we restore, repair, and heal communities, and also free the oppressors from their need to oppress. In this solidarity of communal poverty, we find our way towards one another and joyfully gather in harmonious humanity.
ELEVEN: JESUS IS NAILED TO THE CROSS
The weight of all that Jesus carries pulls against the nails in his hands and feet.
Clàudio Carvalhaes
From Sermon on the Mount
You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. Matthew 5:43-47 The Message
Prayer Adapted from Henri Nouwen
Jesus, Now & Forever— Even in your dying you lived for others. You exhausted, depleted and emptied your body. You showed us your utter loneliness and bewilderment at the abandonment you felt. You broke your heart before us during your greatest moment of despair. You offered your dying as a gift to us. In complete powerlessness, nailed to a tree— you held no bitterness, no desire for revenge, no resentment. Nothing to cling to. Everything to give. This was your gift.
TWELVE: JESUS DIES ON THE CROSS
For Jesus, death was not passive; it was an active gesture of surrender and love. Upon breathing his last he says, “Into your hands I commend my spirit.”
Clàudio Carvalhaes
From the Sermon on the Mount
Healthy are those who strike the note that unites; they shall be remembered as rays of the One Unity. The 7th Beatitude “Blessed are the Peacemakers,” Prayer of the Cosmos – An Aramaic Translation
Prayer Adapted from Henri Nouwen
Jesus, The Eternal Beloved One— You died to show us The Way – the realm of life where heaven touches earth. And in this realm of in-the-beginning-light may we bring light to all that we do— choosing to forgive, not to accuse; choosing to accept, not to reject; choosing to reach out and not hold back; choosing to share and not hoard; choosing to yield power and not cling to it; choosing to heal and not hurt. May we bring light that is gracious and hopeful, joyous and peaceful. May this light clear away all that is resentful, despairing, miserable and divisive. On the cross, Jesus, you prepared a place for us — a path of light that can eradicate all darkness from every corner of the world.
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.