Meditating on the Passion of Our Lord:

“There is more merit to one hour of meditation on My Sorrowful Passion than there is to a whole year of flagellation that draws blood; the contemplation of My painful wounds is of great profit to you, and it brings Me great joy.” Para 369 – Diary of Saint Faustina

The Stations of the Cross or Way of the Cross is a powerful prayer which when prayed with deep reflection on the torments and sufferings of our Lord can lead us to understand one of the greatest gift of God to mankind i.e. our salvation through the Cross. When we jointly reflect our sufferings with that of our Saviour, we experience the redemptive power of this meditation. The more we meditate on His Passion, the more we are drawn to His Divine Love. One who experiences this self emptying Divine love of Our Lord will never be able to sin again, not out of fear of God but out of pure love for Him who loved us so greatly so as to suffer for our sins. It will also teach us to embrace the crosses in our daily lives and endure them like our Saviour, out of love for God, joyfully accepting His will for us (Mark 14:36).

Jesus bore all his sufferings with obedience and pure love for God the Father. He being the Son of God had power over earth and heaven and yet he subjected himself to the authority of mere mortals on earth. He was without blemish, pure and holy, yet as the Father willed, He became sin though he did not know sin. When angry mobs spat and threw insults his way, he bore them with love, forgiving them and pleading to the Father for their forgiveness because he wished they too may be saved and not lost. When he was mocked for his teachings that he taught them with the authority of being the Son of God, he humbly endured it because he knew they were that way because it was the will of the Father. When he was scourged and subjected to inhuman tortures, he bore them with grace as atonement for the sins of all mankind, for all generations before and after Him. He was righteous, without sin, blameless, powerful and had authority above all, yet he humbled himself and endured all the sufferings for love of God the Father and His Holy will.

Jesus invites us to follow Him on this path of redemption and reflect on how we bear our crosses in our daily life. Our weaknesses are often our reasons for our sins. He humbly leads us on to endure our trials, humiliations, insults, sicknesses and bruises, pain and sufferings, poverty and oppressions with love for what the Father has willed for us. Our sufferings are the will of God for us. When we accept and endure our crosses out of true love for God, forgiving and loving our neighbour, we will have embarked on our path of salvation too.

In Para 737 of the Diary of Saint Faustina, Jesus said “There are few souls who contemplate My Passion with true feelings; I give great graces to souls who meditate devoutly on My Passion.”

Meditating on His Passion is a great mystery but one that will surely obtain for us innumerable graces. When we pray the Stations of the Cross, truly meditating on the feelings and emotions that Our Lord endured at every insult, injury, fall, rejection, mocking, flogging and finally the painful death on the Cross, we will surely bear our sufferings with more grace. We too are called to pick up our cross and follow Him, enduring patiently all the sufferings and insults, blessing those who curse us by drawing strength from His Passion. When we do so, we can be sure that His Divine love will transform us into a new creation, holy and pure, free from all inclination to sin, accepting all that comes in our life with grace, resigning ourselves to the will of God. And may He give us the grace to pray as Saint Augustine did, all inflamed with love at the sight of Jesus nailed on the cross:

“Imprint, O Lord, Your wounds in my heart, that I may read therein suffering and love: suffering, that I may endure for You all suffering; love, that I may despise for You all love. Write, he said my most loving Savior, write on my heart Your wounds, in order that I may always behold therein Your sufferings and your love. Yes, because, having before my eyes the great sufferings that You, my God, did endure for me, I may bear in silence all the sufferings that it may fall to my lot to endure; and at the sight of the love which You did exhibit for me on the cross, I may never lose or be able to love any other than You.”

The Stations of the Cross can be prayed at Opening Prayer - Way of the Cross