The texts for this year’s Good
Friday Stations of the Cross procession were prepared by a group of
young Lebanese Catholics, under the guidance of the Patriarch of the
Maronites of Antioch, Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai.
“‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?' Jesus answered this burning question, which arises in the innermost core of our being, by walking the way of the Cross,” these are some of the introductory words to the Stations of the Cross meditations, published in a book entitled Il dolore e la speranza nella Croce di Cristo (The pain and hope in Christ’s Cross). The texts that will be read out at the Colosseum tonight.
The call to follow God “is addressed to all, especially to the young and to those who are tried by division, wars or injustice and who fight to be signs of hope and builders of peace in the midst of their brethren,” the introduction reads.
The 1st Station, the young Lebanese Catholics pray that those who are in positions of power will govern in a just way.
The 2nd meditation is about how man has always “thought he could take the place of God and determine for himself what is good and what is evil.”
The 3rd text is a prayer to the Lord Jesus not to “allow human reason, which you created for yourself, to be satisfied with the partial truths of science and technology without seeking to pose the fundamental questions of the meaning of our existence.”
The 4th spares a thought for families: may they be “oases of love, peace and serenity, in the image of the Holy Family of Nazareth.”
The 5th meditation is dedicated to suffering which, “accepted in faith, is transformed into a path of salvation.”
In the 6th meditation Veronica wipes Jesus’ face, remembering that Christ is present “in every person who suffers.”
The 7th “considers many of our situations from which there seems to be no way of escape.”
The 8th is about Jesus meeting the women of Jerusalem: Our world is full of afflicted mothers, of women whose dignity has been wounded abused by discrimination, injustice and suffering.”
The 9th is about a Church that “is oppressed under the Cross of the divisions that distance Christians from one another.”
In the 10th meditation, Jesus is stripped of his clothes and is asked “Bestow…upon the children of the Eastern Churches - stripped by various difficulties, sometimes to the point of persecution, and weakened by emigration - the courage to remain in their countries to proclaim the Good News.”
In the 11th Jesus is nailed to the Cross and the prayer reads: O Jesus, we pray to you for all those young people who are overcome by hopelessness, for young people who are the victims of drugs, of sects and of perversions. Free them from their enslavement.”
In the 12th meditation, the young Lebanese pray “that all those who promote abortion may become aware that love can only be a source of life.”
In the 13th, they pray “for the victims of the wars and of the violence” and in the 14th, when Jesus is laid in the tomb, the prayers conclude: “We have received the freedom of the children of God, so that we will not return to slavery; life has been given to us in abundance, so that we will no longer be satisfied with a life lacking beauty and meaning.”
Read the meditation texts in full, here