1st Station Jesus, You Allow Yourself to Be Condemned to Death by the Crowd
Pilate then replied, “What shall I do with Jesus, the one called the Messiah?” They all replied, “Crucify him!” He continued, “What evil has he done?” They shouted even more loudly, “Crucify him!” (…) Pilate washed his hands and said to them, “I am not responsible for this man’s death.” (Matthew 27:22-24
Words of Saint Claude
If I were an apostle today, I could be a Judas tomorrow. If I do not fall into the greatest disorder, all the glory is due to you. I have only too much experience and I have seen enough from what I have done and what I am capable of doing. If you were to abandon me for a single moment, I would do even worse than the others.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, You tell us not to judge ourselves. Forgive our words that are not charitable but destructive. Help us to see beyond appearances; to have the thoughts of your gentle and humble Heart.
2nd Station Jesus, You are carrying the wood of the cross
And, spitting on him, they took the reed and struck him on the head. When they had thoroughly mocked him, they took off his robe, put his own clothes on him, and led him away to crucify him. (Matthew 27:30-31)
Words of Saint Claude
Jesus as a true penitent, burdened with the sins of everyone, weeping for all these sins. He is a man pierced and overwhelmed with pain. But the cause? It is the sins of men. There has never been such pain because of the number of sins, because He knew the enormity, the ingratitude, the insolence, the injustice, because Jesus loved his Father and humanity infinitely. Regarding theology, if I had to do it all over again, I would always meditate twice as much as I read. One must read few books and study Jesus Christ crucified a lot.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, grant us the grace to grasp and be grasped by your Passion. Open the eyes of our hearts to allow us to be transformed and sympathize with your redemptive sufferings.
3rd Station Jesus, You fall under the weight of the cross
Yet it was our sufferings that he bore, our pains that he carried. And we thought he was chastened, stricken by God, humbled (…) the Lord has laid on him the iniquities of us all. (Isaiah 53:4-6)
Words of Saint Claude
Through his passion, Jesus teaches us to “detach ourselves from the spirit of the world.” It seems to me that the use of God’s Presence is very effective. It is a strange and unfortunate servitude of a man who seeks to please other men. When will I be able to say like Saint Paul: “The world is crucified to me and I to the world?” » (Galatians 6:14)
Prayer
Lord Jesus, teach us to detach ourselves from the “false” pleasures offered to us by our consumer society. Teach us to share with those who have fallen into material and spiritual poverty. May we experience the joy of giving “from our surplus”… and why not, at least once in our lives – like the widow in the Gospel – what we need.
4th Station Mary, you accompany your Son on your way of the cross
Simeon blessed them, then he said to Mary, his mother: “See, this son of yours will cause the fall and rise of many in Israel. He will be a sign of division. – And you yourself will be pierced by a sword in your heart. – Thus will the thoughts of many be revealed. His mother kept all these things in her heart.” (Luke 2:34-35, 51)
Words of Saint Claude
In vain do your enemy and mine set new traps for me every day. He will make me lose everything rather than the hope I have in your mercy. Even if I had fallen a hundred times and my crimes were a hundred times more horrible than they are, I would still hope in you. We wound and offend the Heart of Jesus much more by our lack of trust in His inexhaustible Mercy than by our sins. “All the evil you have done is nothing compared to that which you do by lacking trust; therefore hope to the end.”
Prayer:
Mary, your Son Jesus had the kindness to prepare your heart for His painful Passion. You had the strength to accompany Him to the supreme gift of Himself. You too, Virgin Mary, give yourself with Him, and in Him, to the Father for the sanctification of your children. Please pray for us, poor sinners, now and at the hour of our death offering. Amen.
Please take a short moment of silence and then say the “Hail Mary.”
5th Station Jesus, You want to be helped to carry your cross by Simon of Cyrene
As they were leaving, they found a man named Simon, a native of Cyrene, and they conscripted him to carry the cross. Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” (Matthew 27:32; 16:24)
Meditation by Saint Claude
The love of humility, of abjection, and of a hidden and obscure life is a great remedy for all ills. We insensibly and quite ridiculously compare ourselves to the greatest saints (…) we want to do in one day in ourselves and in others what has cost them many years. There is no true virtue without simplicity and humility: simplicity makes us forget our own knowledge, and humility persuades us that everyone has more than we do. A humble person sees only their own faults and is unaware of those of others.
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, in your mysterious providence, you chose to involve in the carrying of your cross a man who was already very tired from a day’s work in the fields. We entrust to you all those who toil in their work and find no fulfillment. We pray for those who seek employment and for those who are exploited. May the bread and wine, “fruit of the earth and of human labor,” which we offer you in every Eucharist, become an offering pleasing to you.
6th Station Jesus, Veronica wipes your Face
My heart has repeated your word to me: “Seek my Face.” It is your Face, Lord, that I seek: do not hide your Face from me. Do not turn away your servant in anger, you are still my help. Do not leave me, do not forsake me, O God, (Psalm 27:8-9) my salvation!
Words of Saint Claude
Ordinary charity leads us to have compassion on the poor and to relieve them. I have often said that if the great saw what the little ones suffer, there would be few unhappy people in the world, because they would be touched and it would be easy for them to lift them out of misery.
Prayer:
Lord, we thank you for all those who do good to the sick and lonely in hidden ways. We pray for doctors, nurses, and all healthcare workers. Help each of us to be comforters after having been consoled by you during your Passion.
7th Station Jesus, You Fall for the Second Time
I am the man who has known misery, under the blows of his fury’s staff. It is me he has led and made to walk in darkness and without light. He has blocked my paths with hewn stones, obstructed my paths. He has broken my teeth with gravel, he has fed me with ashes. (Lamentations 3:1-2, 9, 16)
Words of Saint Claude
Not only did Jesus suffer what he should not have suffered, but He suffered more than He should have suffered. It was more than was necessary for our needs, for the justice of his Father, for the hatred of his enemies. If he sheds his blood, it is to the last drop; At the scourging, He receives blows more than the law commands, more than He can bear without a miracle; He has no more strength, He still wants to carry the cross.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, like you, your “faithful servant and perfect friend” was unjustly condemned in London. He was imprisoned for three weeks and then exiled. We pray for all the innocent victims, and for the magistrates and lawyers so that they may exercise justice in the Truth.
8th Station Jesus, You warn the women of Jerusalem
He turned and said to them, “Women of Jerusalem, do not weep for me! Weep for yourselves and for your children! (…) For if they treat the green tree in this way, what will become of the dry tree?” (Luke 23:28, 31)
Words of Saint Claude
I still had feelings of great confusion about my past life; a very strong and very clear conviction of the little, the nothingness that we contribute to the conversion of souls, a very distinct vision of my nothingness.
Prayer
Lord, Saint Claude had to preach to the great men of his time: at the court of King Louis XIV and that of the Duchess of York in England. We pray for today’s political leaders. May they not be influenced by the love of money and “popular pressure.” May they govern by allowing their consciences to be enlightened by the Holy Spirit.
9th Station Jesus, You Fall for the Third Time
He was neither handsome nor brilliant enough to attract our gaze, his appearance had nothing to please us. He was despised, rejected by all, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, like lepers from whom people turn away; and we despised him and counted him as nothing. (Isaiah 53:2-3)
Words of Saint Claude
“For love of us, Jesus Christ not only suffered what He should not have suffered, but He suffered more than He should have suffered. A tear could wash away all our sins, a drop of blood could earn us every help; why then so much blood? Should we ask for reasons from a loving God? He can give none other than his love. When we love, we always believe that whatever we do, whatever we give, it will never be enough. What was lacking in the sufferings of the Son of God? 20
Prayer of Saint Claude
God, Our Father, You loved us so much that You gave us Your own Son. If we deserved it by our actions, that would already be a madness of Love! So how much more do we, who are sinners, not “deserve” such love! Why give us Your Son? Why does Your Son allow Himself to be pierced by our sins! As Pope Francis writes: because “The sin of the world is immense, but it is not infinite. On the other hand, your redeeming and merciful Love is infinite.”
10th Station Jesus, You allow yourself to be stripped of your garments
Let each of you not be concerned about his own interests, but also about those of others. Have in yourselves the same mind which is in Christ Jesus: Christ Jesus, being in the form of God, did not esteem equality with God. But he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being made in the likeness of men. 22 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:4-8)
Words of Saint Claude
I find myself miserable in a way that I cannot express: my imagination is wild and extravagant. All passions toss my heart, and hardly a day goes by without one after the other arousing all their unruly movements.
Prayer:
God our Father, You who created man and woman in Your image, You have fashioned for us a body, a “Temple of the Holy Spirit.” Forgiveness for all the so-called “impure” sins that do not respect the beauty and meaning of sexuality. Come heal all victims of sexual abuse and power. Come also heal the sick who commit such acts. Give us hatred of sin and love of purity.
11th Station Jesus, You are crucified on the wood of the cross.
Above his head they wrote the reason for his condemnation: “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” At the same time, two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and the other on the left. Passersby insulted him, shaking their heads: “You who destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself, if you are the Son of God, and come down from the cross!” (Matthew 27:37-40) 24
Words of Saint Claude
At the scourging, he received blows more than the law commanded, more than he could bear without a miracle. He had no more strength; he still wanted to carry the cross. But is it not too much, my adorable Savior? Yes, he will reply, it is too much to appease my Father, too much to extinguish hatred, too much to erase all the sins of the earth (…) but it is not enough to touch your heart, to inspire in you the slightest feeling of gratitude! O harshness! O insensitivity! Indeed, all these excesses have not been able to overcome our slowness and lukewarmness.
Prayer
Jesus, on the Cross You taught us forgiveness: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” May persecuted Christians repeat through You and in You these powerful and divine words. May we pray like You for our enemies and live with You and with Mary forgiveness for our persecutors
12th Station Jesus, You Die on the Wood of the Cross
When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, “It is finished.” Then, bowing his head, he gave up his spirit (…) When they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs, but one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. He who saw it bears witness, and his testimony is true. He knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe. For this happened so that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not a bone of him will be broken.” Another passage of Scripture says: They will lift up their eyes to him whom they have pierced. (John 19:30, 33-37) 26
Prayer of Saint Claude (referring to the hardness of his heart):
What will You do then, Lord, to overcome such great hardness? You are exhausted in this Mystery of Love… I see only one resource in such a great evil; it is necessary, O my God, it is necessary that You give us another heart, a tender heart, a sensitive heart, a heart that is neither marble nor bronze; we must give us a heart just like Yours, we must give us Your very Heart. Come, lovable Heart of Jesus, come and place Yourself in the center of my breast, and kindle there a Love that responds, if possible, to the obligations I have to love God. (Father), love Jesus in me as much as You have loved me in Him, grant that I may live only in Him, and that I may live only for Him, so that I may live eternally with Him in Heaven.
13th Station Mary, you receive your dead son on your knees.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Whoever loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this way the love of God was manifested among us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. This is love: Not that we loved God, but he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to forgive our sins. (1 John 4:7-10) 28
Prayer of Saint Claude
You have drawn me from nothingness, You have drawn me from hell, if I live, it is only by Your Grace, by Your pure Mercy; Is it not quite right that You should use me according to Your good pleasure? Strike me then, O my God, as much as You please, and as harshly as You please; I must suffer greatly before my pains equal Yours, before they equal those of Your Holy Mother, before they equal the number of my sins. I will at least have this consolation in my troubles, that I will walk a path that You traced with Your precious Blood, a path that Mary watered with her tears, a path that all Your friends have followed, and by which they have all arrived at glorious immortality.
14th Station Jesus, You are laid in a new tomb
Beloved, since God has so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God. But if we love one another, God dwells in us, and his love is perfected in us. (1 John 4:11-12) 30
Prayer of Saint Claude
1 Sacred Heart of Jesus, teach me perfect self-forgetfulness, since this is the only way to enter You. Teach me what I must do to attain the purity of Your love, for which You have inspired me to desire. I feel within me a great desire to please You, and a great powerlessness to achieve it without a very special light and help that I can only expect from You… Do Your will in me, Lord! I oppose it, I feel it well, but I would like, it seems to me, not to oppose it. It is up to You to do everything, divine Heart of Jesus Christ; You alone will have all the glory of my sanctification, if I make myself a saint: this seems to me clearer than day; but it will be a great glory for You, and it is for this reason alone that I desire perfection. Amen.
“Jesus, You are the one and only true Friend.” Jesus, You are the one and only true Friend. You share in all my ills, You take them upon Yourself, You know the secret of turning them to good, You listen to me kindly when I tell You of my afflictions, and You never fail to soften them (…) You never tire of hearing me, You never tire of doing me good. I am assured of being loved, if I love You. You have no need of my possessions and You do not impoverish Yourself by sharing Yours with me. However miserable I may be, a nobler, a more beautiful spirit, even a holier one will not take Your friendship away from me; and death, which tears us from all other friends, must reunite me with You. All the misfortunes of age or fortune cannot detach You from me; on the contrary, I never enjoy You more fully, You will never be closer than when everything is most against me. You suffer my faults with admirable patience; even my infidelities, my ingratitudes do not hurt You so much that You are not always ready to return, if I want