suffering Saviour. According to a reliable tradition, Veronica, who handed to our Lord a cloth wherewith to wipe the sweat from His brow, was one of these weeping women. When she received back the cloth from Him, the Sacred Face of Jesus was wonderfully imprinted on it.
Carrying the Cross is both necessary and meritorious. It was to all men that our Lord said (Mat. 16, 24): “If any man will come after Me, let him deny Himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” Whoever, therefore, wishes to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ must take up his cross daily and follow our Lord, or, in other words, he must patiently bear all labours, burdens, and sufferings. The story of Simon of Cyrene shows us what a blessed and meritorious thing it is to carry the cross after Jesus. At first he strove against the honour imposed on him, considering it to be an indignity. Soon, however, he was seized with compassion for the Divine Sufferer, and from that moment he carried the Cross with joy. By the labour of love which he performed for our Lord, he obtained the gift of faith, and was consecrated bishop by St. Peter.
The devotion of the Way of the Cross places before us for our devout contemplation the sufferings of our Lord divided into fourteen stations, from His condemnation to death to His being laid in the sepulchre. The Church recommends this devotion very much, and he who devoutly practises it in a state of grace may obtain the same indulgences that are granted to the faithful who visit in person the, sacred places in Jerusalem. The fourteen stations are as follows: 1. Jesus is condemned to death by Pilate; 2. The Cross is laid on the shoulders of Jesus; 3. Jesus falls under His Cross the first time; 4. Jesus meets His Mother; 5. Simon of Cyrene is compelled to help Jesus to carry the Cross; 6. St. Veronica wipes the Face of Jesus with a cloth; 7. Christ falls under His Cross the second time; 8. The women of Jerusalem mourn for our Lord; 9. Jesus falls the third time under the weight of the Cross; 10. Jesus is stripped of His garments; 11. Jesus is nailed to the Cross; 12. Jesus dies upon the Cross; 13. Jesus is laid in the arms of His most afflicted Mother; 14. Jesus is laid in the tomb.
Application. Contemplate the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ very often and very devoutly, that you, like the pious women, may be moved to tears. Do not, however, be content with a merely natural compassion for your Saviour so cruelly nailed to the Cross, but let it call forth within you a deep love for the Son of God, who offered up His sufferings for you. Let it awaken in your heart a great horror of sin, which brought all this suffering on your sinless Saviour. Weep for yourself and for your sins which caused our Lord s bitter Passion, and pray
