Jesus is stripped of his Garments, and offered Vinegar and Gall. V. We adore thee, O Lord Jesus Christ, and bless thee. THE MYSTERY. This Station represents how our Lord Jesus Christ ascended Mount Calvary, and was by his inhuman executioners stripped of his garments. The skin and congealed blood are torn off with them, and his wounds renewed. Consider the confusion of the modest Lamb, exposed naked to the contempt and derision of an insulting rabble. They present him with vinegar and gall for a refreshment. Condemn here that delicacy of taste, that sensual indulgence, with which you flatter your sinful body. Pray here for the spirit of Christian mortification. Think how happy you would die, if stripped of the world and its attachments, you could expire, covered with the blood and agony of Jesus. PRAYER. SUFFERING JESUS! I behold thee stript of thy garments, thy old wounds renewed, and new ones added to the old. I behold thee naked in the presence of thousands, exposed to the inclemency of the weather; cold, trembling from head to foot, insulted by the blasphemous derisions of the spectators. Strip, O mangled Lamb of God! my heart of the world and its deceitful affections. Divest my soul of its habits of sensual indulgence. Embitter the poisoned cup of pleasure, that I may dash it with contempt from my lips, and through Christian mortification arrive at thy never fading glory. Amen, JESUS. Our Father, &c. Hail Mary, &c. Glory, &c. I, O Queen of angels, how thy heart did bleed. Christ is nailed to the Cross. V. We adore thee, O Lord Jesus Christ, and bless thee. THE MYSTERY. . This Station represents the place where Jesus Christ, in the presence of his afflicted mother, is stretched on the Cross, and nailed to it. How insufferable the torture-the nerves and sinews are rent by the nails. Consider the exceeding desolation, the anguish of the tender Mother, eye-witness of this inhuman punishment of her beloved Jesus. Generously resolve then to crucify your criminal desires, and nail your sins to the wood of the Cross. Contemplate the suffering resignation of the Son of God to the will of his Father, while you are impatient in trifling afflictions, in trivial disappointments. Purpose henceforth to embrace your cross with ready resignation to the will of God. PRAYER. O PATIENT JESUS! meek Lamb of God! who promised, "When I shall be exalted from earth I will draw all things to myself," attract my heart to thee, and nail it to the Cross. I now renounce and detest my past impatience. Let me crucify my flesh with its concupiscence and vices. Here burn, here cut, but spare me for eternity. I throw myself into the arms of thy mercy. Thy will be done in all things. Grant me resignation, grant me thy love, I desire no more. Amen, JESUS. Our Father, &c. Hail Mary, &c. Glory, &c. You Christian hearts now join with Mary's grief; Heaven and earth behold! deny relief; Her heart was pierced with bitter grief to see Her loving Jesus nailed unto a tree. Christ is exalted on the Cross, and dies. V. We adore thee, O Lord Jesus Christ, and bless thee. THE MYSTERY. This Station represents the place where Jesus Christ was publicly exalted on the Cross between two robbers, who for their enormous crimes were executed with the innocent Lamb. Consider here the confusion of your Saviour, exposed naked to the profane view of a blasphemous multitude. Imagine yourself at the foot of the Cross. Behold that sacred body streaming blood from every part. Contemplate the divine countenance pale and languid, the heart throbbing in the last pangs of agony, the soul on the point of separation; yet charity triumphs over his agony; his last prayers petition forgiveness for his enemies. "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." His clemency is equally extended to the penitent thief: "This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." He recommends in his last moments his disconsolate Mother to his beloved St. John. He recommends his soul to his heavenly Father, and bowing down his submissive, obedient head, resigns his spirit. Turn your eyes on the naked, bloody portrait of charity. Number his wounds. Wash them with tears of sympathizing love. Behold the arms extended to embrace you. Love of Jesus! thou diest to deliver us from eternal captivity. PRAYER. O SUFFERING SON OF GOD! I now behold thee in the last convulsive pangs of death,-thy veins opened, thy sinews torn, thy hands and feet, O Fountain of Paradise: distilling blood. I acknowledge, charitable Jesus, that my reiterated offences have been thy merciless executioners, the cause of thy bitter sufferings and death. Yet, God of mercy, look on my sinful soul, bathe it in thy precious blood! Let me die to the vanity of the world, and renounce its false pleasures. Thou didst pray, my Jesus, for thy enemies. I forgive mine. I embrace them in the bowels of thy charity. I bury my resentment in thy wounds. Shelter me in the day of wrath in the sanctuary of thy side. Let me live let me die, in my crucified Jesus. Amen. Our Father, &c. Hail Mary, &c. Glory, &c. Behold the streams of blood from every part, To suffer for our sins pain's utmost pang. |