Introduction
Our Christian faith invites us to participate in the life of our LORD Jesus Christ. As His beloved and adopted children, we are invited to participate in the spirit of His suffering and death, so that we may also participate and enjoy in His eternal life. The devotion to the Stations of the Cross is one way of meditating and participating in the spirit of His suffering and death. This Stations of the Cross, in particular, focuses on the life of those who are going through illnesses and trials of any sort. In this Stations of the Cross, we remember those who are suffering from any illnesses (physical, mental, or spiritual) whether it be ourselves, our loved ones, or those we know. May we experience the powerful loving presence of God as we accompany Him to the way of His suffering and death!

In the name of the Father…

Opening Prayer 

We praise you, O LORD, for the mysteries of your passion, death, and resurrection which you have entered for our sake. These mysteries become our source of salvation – peace, joy, strength, wisdom, and generosity – so that we may be able to live as your beloved children. As we enter and meditate on each of these stations, we ask you to open to our hearts and so to know in a personal way how you are involved in each of our lives. Amen.

First Station: Jesus is Condemned to Death
Acceptance of our reality 

+ We praise you O Christ, and we bless you+
R: For by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world!

The most powerful thing in the world is empathy, which is a profound willingness to enter into the world of someone else. The most powerful thing God ever did, therefore, is entering into our world on that silent night, when He shared in our humanity. The Incarnation, then, is a reminder to us that God has accepted to share our reality, and everything that comes along with it: hopes, fears, worries, and even a global pandemic. If God has accepted every ounce of our reality, it may be a convincing reason for us to accept our own reality as it unfolds moment by moment, day by day. We have all the good reason to accept our reality, no matter how delightful or dreadful it may be, because God accepts it along with us.

+Dear LORD, you took on flesh and dwelt among us. Just like the blind man you healed (Mark 10:46-52), I pray that I may be able to see constantly that you are with me, embracing everything that happens no matter what, for you are the LORD of all.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory Be.

Second Station: Jesus Carries His Cross
Never be afraid

+ We praise you O Christ, and we bless you+
R: For by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world! 

The cross was the most feared image in the cultural world where our LORD lived His earthly life. To be crucified at that time was the most shameful thing anyone could ever experience. Even the mere thought of crucifixion was just as horrifying as the actual crucifixion. Our own life experience is no exception. We all have our own deep-seeded fears, one of which may be going through an illness that would prevent us from living the most out of our lives. The unsettling reality is that we have no control whether our fears would happen or not. We wish our fears won’t happen, and yet they do. Who would be the better person to show us how to deal with our fears than our LORD? The most feared image got in the way of living out the most of His life and, yet, He carried it. He accepted it. He carried it as a way of telling us there nothing to fear. In a life with Him, there is no fear. There is only love.

+Dear LORD, you know all our worries. Sometimes you know them too well even before we become aware of it. To you we offer them up, so that we may live not in fear, but in great love. Amen.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory Be.

Third Station: Jesus Falls the First Time
Struggles with Prayer 

+ We praise you O Christ, and we bless you+
R: For by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world!

Falling is not a pleasant experience at all. We can fall physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. When we do, we find ourselves either in a hospital room, an operating room, a lonely house, or in dark places our mind has taken us. Praying becomes a great difficulty. We fall into an abyss where we don’t seem to experience the presence of God. Our struggle to experience the presence of God does not have to be a reason to walk away from Him. The struggle is often an indication of our desire for trust in God. We desire that God will draw us out of that abyss. That desire can, in itself, be our prayer. And while we hold on to that desire, our LORD will get us back, because He is no stranger to the experience. He, himself, falls as well.  Our LORD knows very well all these struggles we go to, because He made, searched us, and know us (Ps 139). Even when we fall into these struggles, He is there, because He himself has experienced what’s it like to fall, crying out the words: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” (Matthew 27:46; Ps 22:2).

+Dear LORD, you fell on the way to Calvary to share in our weaknesses – in our weakness to pray and experience your presence. In our struggles, we fall either in indifference or revolt. We beg, dear LORD, that we may patiently grow in trust even in the struggles. With the power of your hand, may we also serve as instruments for others to bring them to you, and so experience what it truly means to be a Church.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory Be.

Fourth Station: Jesus meets His Mother
Mother Mary in times of our illnesses and trials

+ We praise you O Christ, and we bless you+
R: For by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world!

A loving mother would suffer more from what her child is going through than the child. She would be eager to know what her suffering child is going through. The Mother of our LORD – our Mother – became an important part of His plan of salvation for us. Because of her YES, she became an important part of His plan of salvation for us. In a way, she is an important person in our Christian life. When we dedicate our life to God, she becomes the first person to intercede for us in living our Christian lives as wholeheartedly as possible. When we struggle to understand God’s purpose in our lives in times of sickness or anxiety, Mother Mary helps us understand it. When we struggle praying to God in these difficult times, Mother Mary helps us to carry on.

+Dear LORD, we thank you for the gift of your Mother, who intercedes for your Church. We will never run out of help when we struggle in our daily lives as Christians, because our Blessed Mother is always with us. We seek to strengthen our relationship with our Blessed Mother, because when we do, we strengthen our relationship with you as well. Through the example of our Blessed Mother, we may have the grace to reach out to those who seek to be close to you as well.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory Be.

Fifth Station: Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry His cross
Suffering is not meant to be carried alone

+ We praise you O Christ, and we bless you+
R: For by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world!

All of the Synoptic Gospel accounts mention that on His way to Calvary, Jesus meets Simon of Cyrene who helped Him carry His cross (Matthew 27:32; Mark 16:21; Luke 23:26). Perhaps we can take this as their way of saying that we do not suffer alone. Or maybe it has occurred to us to ask God what does He ever do in the face of suffering? Surely, He has to have something in the face of suffering. Why do things get worse even when the medical staff and my loved ones try to get better? We may never know the answers to the questions of our suffering, but we know for sure that we never experience our sufferings alone. Our health may get worse, but there are the medical staff and loved ones who journey. Their companionship they offer often makes our sufferings meaningful at least. They are the ones who stay on our side, who never give up on us, or ones who help us make sense of what we’re going through. Who have been the Simons of Cyrene in our lives?

+Dear LORD, we can never know wholeheartedly why we suffer, but we know that you send us people on our way to journey with our sufferings. They don’t get rid of our sufferings, but their companionship make them meaningful. And so we pray, dear LORD, that we may always remember this thought. Give us, LORD, the strength and peace to share our sufferings with others.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory Be.

Sixth Station: Veronica wipes the Face of Jesus
The gift of those who offer themselves in service to those who are ill and at risk.

+ We praise you O Christ, and we bless you+
R: For by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world!

In the midst of suffering of any sort, we find people seeking to reach out to us. It was definitely the case with Jesus, as Veronica looks intently at Him from afar. With a generous spirit she attended to our LORD, wiping His face filled with blood, tears, and anguish. Veronica offered her help. Our LORD offered His vulnerability. When we go through physical or mental illnesses, there will be people who will look at us from afar and attend to us generously. Veronica may have offered her helping hand with a heavy heart as well – a heavy heart for what our LORD was going through and for what she may be going through as well. The people whom Veronica represents in our time – the doctors, nurses, caregivers, and those in the front lines of medical care – are certainly the people of the Kingdom of God: attending to the suffering of others regardless of what they may be going through their own. Even in the face of suffering, there is still something to appreciate: the generosity of those whom God sends our way.

+Dear LORD, we may never fully understand your ways, but you certainly work for our good. You send us people to attend to us in our weakness and in our path to healing. We ask you, LORD, to take care of them. Grant them all the blessings they need – peace, strength, wisdom, and perseverance. For without them, we wouldn’t be able to experience a piece of your kingdom in the face of suffering.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory Be.

Seventh Station: Jesus Falls the Second Time
Overcoming our frail human nature to achieve spiritual perfection  

+ We praise you O Christ, and we bless you+
R: For by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world!

We all strive to be the best we can be, and our LORD highlights that desire of ours with His words “Be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Being perfect is not about being free of mistakes, struggles, and disappointments, but being able to acknowledge them at least so that we can be the best we can be. Being perfect involves the enormously difficult task of dealing with our struggles and mistakes. Each and every one of us have our own struggles – some struggle with negative thoughts, an addiction or a heartbreak. We try to overcome them but find ourselves falling into them over and over again. We do not know why we keep falling into them, but we know for sure that we will have to deal with them, perhaps for the rest of our lives. Our LORD, who falls for the second time, teaches us that the way to perfection includes dealing with our struggles, vices, and addictions. He could’ve willed Himself from not falling with His Divinity, but He emptied Himself and did not regard equality with God (Philippians 2:6-7), and falls once again. Just as our LORD continued with His journey, we get back up after we fall and continue. It is in the perseverance and patience of getting back up after we fall that we attain true perfection.

+Dear LORD, we fall many times in our lives. With your grace we get back up. Grant us the same grace you have when you fell the second time, to persevere in getting back up. So that with your grace, we may inspire others to get back up from their own struggles as well.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory Be.

Eight Station: Jesus meets the Women of Jerusalem
Our LORD seeks to encounter those who feel abandoned or isolated.

+ We praise you O Christ, and we bless you. +

One of the big challenges of being ill is feeling like a burden to loved ones. Our situation demands valuable time and energy from them, and we feel bad for taking those from them. We, then, find ourselves in hospital rooms for longer than we want, or in convalescent facilities. There are some people in hospital rooms, convalescent facilities or their homes who feel burdened by what they feel about themselves. Some of them may feel unwanted. Illnesses have a tendency to make us feel unwanted. And yet, even in the midst of whatever we may go through, our LORD continues to keep them in mind. He meets them wherever they are, just like the women of Jerusalem He met on the way to Calvary. He loving gaze lifted up their burden. When we close our eyes in prayer, we experience His loving gaze as well, relieving us the feeling of being a burden.

+Dear LORD, we never sought to feel ill and to feel unwanted. Yet, here we are and the rest of those who experience it. We seek you, but you seek us. Replace the burden of feeling unwanted with a spirit of gratitude, for the presence of those who help us, as well as for your desire to find and meet us. You desire us not to be separated from you, and we praise and thank you.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory Be.

Ninth Station: Jesus Falls the Third Time
Persevering through the Depression in any circumstances

+ We praise you O Christ, and we bless you+
R: For by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world!

It used to be what no one talks about. It used to be concealed with a façade of what seems normal. A smile. A laughter. A joke. And then over time becomes difficult to hide, so we start isolating ourselves with fear that we will be reprimanded for being depressed. Eventually, one person after another begins to open up. Some never get the chance to out of fear. Depression does not pick out a person. Some people tragically take their own lives because of the enormous weight it can bring. Most fight through it, just so they can get through living the rest of their day. We are conquerors of our own depression, and then there are some days when we fall into it again. When we cannot control ourselves from falling into depression, we are invited to reflect that our LORD didn’t prevent himself from falling the third time. Jesus falls the third time. He himself experienced the weight of the cross – the cross of our depression. Even when we experience the weight of depression, we are invited to keep in mind that we do not fall from depression alone. Our LORD falls with us, and that will make the difference.

+Dear LORD, we cannot control the heavy burden of what we go through. We want to carry on and conquer. We believe you will deliver us from this dark and heavy burden. As we bring to you our petitions to free us from our depression, we pray for the strength to carry this burden patiently, and for the understanding that You carry this burden with us.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory Be.

Tenth Station: Jesus’ Clothes are Taken away
The presence of God even when all things are taken away from us

+ We praise you O Christ, and we bless you+
R: For by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world!

Life seems to be going well, living in a sense of stability among family, friends, colleagues, and one’s self. All of a sudden, it gets interrupted by an unfortunate news: “I’ve been diagnosed with cancer”, “Mom has been diagnosed with leukemia”, “Youngest son got in an accident”, or an “classes and jobs have been suspended because of a pandemic”. Our sense of stability is worth so much for each of us, that it’s almost unfair that it can be taken away by any tragic news. We don’t understand why we have to go through being stripped away of anything that is valuable to us. In this station, let us remember that Jesus was also stripped off. He was stripped off with His clothes and, therefore, shared in our vulnerability of not having the things we cherish the most.

+Dear LORD, we cry in anguish and in grief for the things we have lost because of our illness. We offer our cries of anguish and grief to you, because you understand what we go through. So that through these healing cries, we may experience the peace Job had with the words he uttered: “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. May the name of the LORD be praised” (Job 1:21).

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory Be.

Eleventh Station: Jesus is nailed to the Cross
Surrendering to the Divine Will of God

+ We praise you O Christ, and we bless you+
R: For by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world!

With His tortured body suspended and arms outstretched on the cross, our LORD may have illustrated an image of defeat. In the eyes of the Roman Empire and of everyone in the world, it surely was an image of a defeat – a tragic defeat. His apostles thought of Him as the one Messiah who would conquer the world. He did, but not in a way that was expected by everyone. Mounted on His ultimate pulpit, the Cross, our LORD preached to the world that it is by surrendering ourselves to the will of the One who created the world, we achieve victory. We surrender our entire being to the LORD so that we may live in triumph. We don’t seek victory; we only receive it from the One who has done it for us. All our efforts, then, have to be rooted in a spirit of surrender to God. We can never overcome our illnesses and struggles on our own, but with a spirit of surrender to God, we shall surely conquer them. We are mad to live in the triumph of happiness, peace, and joy, and God assures us of that by using what seemed to be the instrument of defeat. With a spirit of surrender, we conquer all our struggles because of Him who loves us.

+Dear LORD, your capacity is beyond all our imagination. You conquered what constantly defeats us through an instrument of defeat. Help us see your wonders, so that in seeing them we may truly live in happiness and in undying service for others.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory Be.

Twelfth Station: Jesus dies on the Cross
Living and dying meaningfully

+ We praise you O Christ, and we bless you+
R: For by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world!

Nobody looks forward to death as eagerly as our LORD did. He does not die; but even if His divinity does not warrant it, He sought it. He sought it to experience what’s it like being us. He loves us so much He wanted to experience wholeheartedly what’s it like being human. Because to live is to arrive at death at some point. Our LORD died for us so that we that may be relived of the power that death has for us, that even if we die, there is the path of God – the path of everlasting life that awaits us. We prepare for that path with the way we live. We live most meaningfully when we prepare for that path. The death of God allows us to be good and to do good even in the most inconvenient circumstances we can possibly be in. Wherever we are, however we may be doing, we have similar blessings of living meaningfully.

+Dear LORD, you allowed yourself to experience death to remind us that it is not the end of life. With you, life does not end, and that is the life we look forward to. Help us, LORD to live meaningfully so that we may experience a meaningful death and so to arrive on the path to life eternal. As we live meaningfully, we pray for those who struggle doing so.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory Be.

Thirteenth Station: The Body of Jesus is taken from the Tomb
All our worries and hardships are not meant to last forever 

+ We praise you O Christ, and we bless you+
R: For by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world!

The sufferings of our LORD came to an end with a death on the cross. In Scripture, we hear of a virtuous man named Joseph from Arimathea who took care of the body of our LORD and brought it down from the cross (Luke 23:50-52; Mark 15:42-45; Matthew 27:57-58; John 19:38). Jesus’ body was brought down, and our own personal worries will be brought down as well. It is not that our worries will end when we die, it is that they are not meant to last forever. Life is short, they say, so if it is, then the worries and hardships we go through must be shorter. They are only meant to pass by. We reflect on our present worries and hardships. With the eyes of faith, we see that they are not meant to last long, but the love of God does – even in His death during those three days.

+Dear LORD, our lives are pressed with worries and challenges every now and then. You know what causes them. We lift them up to you, O LORD. We lift up them up to you with weary hearts. Transform our weary hearts into joy with the reminder that our worries and challenges are not meant to last forever.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory Be.

Fourteenth Station: Jesus is laid in the Tomb
Perseverance in hope

+ We praise you O Christ, and we bless you. +

Whether it be in a journey to recovery, a journey to healing, or a journey to overcoming a pandemic, we are called to persevere in hope. Sometimes persevering in hope can be the most difficult thing in the journey, especially when the journey becomes a drag. We may be dealing with an illness or an inconvenient circumstance for quite a while, and our hope seems to be fading away. The tomb experience can be a “dead end” moment. Let us remember, however, that God’s greatest work took place in the tomb – when He left it empty. Persevering in hope, whatever our circumstances may be, is a far more valuable wealth than all the other riches we can have in this world.

+Dear LORD, you came to our world to experience it with us, so that we may live our lives with hope. You know that we struggle with hope every now and then. We ask you to help us persevere in hope, so that we may witness your wonderful works in our lives and in the lives of others. Amen.

Closing Prayer

We live a life filled with joys and tears, O LORD. In these meditations, we have experienced in a profound way how you are personally involved in our tears as well. We praise and thank you, O LORD, for boundless generosity in giving yourself to us with reservations – in our pleasure and pain, in our joys and sorrows, in health and in sickness. We pray to you O LORD that we may continue to experience your loving presence in our lives and that, after meditating on these stations, we may become effective instruments of bring your loving presence to others as well. We ask this through your son, Jesus Christ, our redeemer in union with the Holy Spirit – One God forever and ever.

Amen.

In the name of the Father…

Image:
Cristo Roto from San Juan de Gracia, Aguascalientes, MX. 06.27.2019
©John Paul Simon