This Lent we Visitandines invite you to contemplate the Stations of the Cross according to Mother Angelica Alvarez Icaza, Mystic and Foundress of our Mexican City Monastery, pondering her thoughts about the suffering Face of Jesus.
First Station
Jesus is Condemned to Death
“Sacred Face of my Jesus of such beauty as the hidden Eternal Word.
Under your crown of thorns, bloody, wounded, humiliated, without raising your eyes to receive your sentence of death, with your serene Face as one who planned it, you have accepted it totally and stand firm in carrying out the work of our redemption.
Beautiful manly face of my Jesus, in memory of you may I accept the will of the Father in all events.”
Second Station
Jesus embraces the Cross
“Downcast face of my Jesus that you raise to look at the cross with love! Face covered in blood and wounds, looking at it reanimates you like someone you find that you ardently wanted to see.
This will be my attitude when I encounter a cross”
Third Station
Jesus Falls the First Time
” Adorable Face of my Jesus, that falls to the earth the first time, upon rising look at me and purify me, that I can come close to You.“
Fourth Station
Jesus Meets His Holy Mother
” Beautiful Face of my Jesus, on meeting your Holy Mother, your face took on an indefinable expression of love and pain. You did not have to speak because your felt understood by Mary. I also understand you always because you chose me for your spouse.”
Fifth Station
Jesus is Helped by Simon the Cyrene
“Grateful Face of my Jesus, you are helped to carry the cross. Grant that I may help you in some way with no other reward than to see your Face.”
Sixth Station
Jesus before Veronica
” Adorable Face of my Jesus, whoever looks for you welcomes you into the depths of one’s soul. That is also for me and for all those I love. Give to us as you did to Veronica; may the portrait of your face be imprinted intimately on our souls, or better, grant us that by your love, by imitation and transformation, we will be your living Portrait.”
Seventh Station
Jesus Falls the Second Time
“Humiliated Face of My Jesus that falls the second time towards the dust of the earth, nothing can hurt or humiliate me while contemplating your profound humiliations.”
Eighth Station
Jesus Consoles the Women of Jerusalem
“Compassionate Face of my Jesus, you forget your own sufferings in seeing those who need consolation. That I also may forget mine in all cases and give peace. joy and consolation to all those around me.”
Ninth Station
Jesus Falls a Third Time
“Humiliated Face of my Jesus, for the third time you fall down, each time more exhausted and sore. I beg you that this profound humiliation free our souls from falling into the eternal fire and from falling into sin and voluntary faults.”
Tenth Station
Jesus is Stripped of His Garments
“Most Pure Face of my Jesus, fully flushed and humiliated at seeing yourself bereft of your clothing; renew the face of the earth with a divine breath of purity and make me live stripped of what is not you.”
Eleventh Station
Jesus is Raised Onto the Cross
“Beloved Face of my Jesus that expresses a feeling of excruciating pain when nailed to the cross, may I always lived nailed to the same cross with you, faithful and constant in being all Yours, cost what it may cost.”
Twelfth Station
Jesus Dies On the Cross
” Agonized face of my Jesus on the cross, from your dying lips I want to learn: to forgive. To trust. To live with the Blessed Mother and to have her as Mother. To have thirst for the salvation of souls. To fulfill my duties and the mission you have given to me. To come to you if I ever feel helplessness. And to put my spirit in Your Hands. Lean to tilt your face toward my smallness and before you die give me a kiss of peace and mercy and love. Receive me at the hour of my death. Show me your Face in that hour that I will fall in love with You forever.”
Thirteenth Station
Jesus is Placed in the Arms of His Mother
” Livid but beautiful Face of my Jesus, I want to contemplate you in the arms of Mary and never to separate myself from You.”
Fourteenth Station
Jesus is laid in the Tomb
” Divine Face of my Jesus, veiled now for me, teach me, teach me to be generous with you and to hope to enter the shadows of death in time to see your glorious Face and that you will call me to live with you eternally in Heaven. Amen.
Final Prayer:
Oh God! You have given us in the Face of your Son Jesus an untarnished mirror of your Divinity; grant us that by the contemplation of this divine Face we will obtain the eternal possession of the One whom we love and who lives and reigns in unity of the Holy Spirit one God, for ever and ever Amen.
