Stations of the Cross. The Ninth Station
THE NINETH STATION: Jesus Meets the Weeping Women
Slowly read aloud this passage of Scripture:
Luke 23:27-31 CSB
27 A large crowd of people followed him, including women who were mourning and lamenting him. 28 But turning to them, Jesus said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and your children. 29 Look, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the women without children, the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed!’ 30 Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us!’, 31 For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
Kneel or simply open your hands and pray:
Jesus, after being silent, you speak. You turn the eyes of the women away from your suffering and toward the destructive powers of sin. You warn them not to shed their tears for you but rather for themselves and their children. If you, the innocent one, can suffer so, what will be the fate of the guilty?
O Jesus, the wood is now very dry! Set fire to the world so that it might burn with your love. Destroy all hatred, fill us with joy again. Teach us to mourn the way things are; show us the way they could be. We love you, Jesus; weep for us.
Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.
Take time to listen to the Spirit speak.