Take up thy cross

Take up thy cross, the Saviour said,
If thou wouldst My disciple be;
Deny thyself, the world forsake,
And humbly follow after Me.

Take up thy cross, let not its weight
Fill thy weak spirit with alarm;
His strength shall bear thy spirit up,
And brace thy heart and nerve thine arm.

Take up thy cross, nor heed the shame,
Nor let thy foolish pride rebel;
Thy Lord for thee the cross endured,
And saved thy soul from death and hell.

Take up thy cross then in His strength,
And calmly sins wild deluge brave,
Twill guide thee to a better home,
It points to glory oer the grave.

Take up thy cross and follow Christ,
Nor think til death to lay it down;
For only those who bear the cross
May hope to wear the glorious crown.

To Thee, great Lord, the One in Three,
All praise forevermore ascend:
O grant us in our home to see
The heavenly life that knows no end.

Introduction

Jesus voice             These fourteen steps
that you are now about to walk
you do not take alone.
I walk with you.
Though you are you,
and I am I,
yet we are truly one
one Christ
And therefore
My way of the cross
two thousand years ago
and your way now
are also one.
But note this difference.
My life was incomplete
until I crowned it
by My death.
Your fourteen steps
will only be complete
when you have crowned
them by your life.

Station 1 -- Jesus Is Condemned

Jesus voice             In Pilates hands, My other self,
I see My Fathers will.
Though Pilate is unjust,
he is the lawful governor
and he has power over Me.
And so the Son of God
obeys a son of man.
If I can bow to Pilates rule
because this is My Fathers will,
can you refuse obedience
to those whom I place over you?

Response 1              My Jesus, Lord,
obedience cost You Your life.
For me
it costs an act of will--
no more--
and yet how hard it is for
me to bend.
Remove the blinders
from my eyes
that I may see that it is
You whom I obey
in all who govern me.
Lord, it is You.

There is a green hill far away

There is a green hill far away,
Outside a city wall,
Where the dear Lord was crucified,
Who died to save us all.

Refrain

O dearly, dearly, has He loved,
And we must love Him, too,
And trust in His redeeming blood,
And try His works to do.

We may not know, we cannot tell,
What pains He had to bear;
But we believe it was for us
He hung and suffered there.

He died that we might be forgiven,
He died to make us good,
That we might go at last to heaven,
Saved by His precious blood.

There was no other good enough
To pay the price of sin;
He only could unlock the gate
Of heaven and let us in.

O dearly, dearly has He loved,
And we must love Him, too,
And trust in His redeeming blood,
And try His works to do.

Station 2 -- Jesus Takes His Cross

Jesus voice             This cross,
this chunk of tree,
is what My Father chose for Me.
The crosses you must bear
are largely products of your daily life.
And yet My Father chose
them, too, for you.
Receive them from His hands.
Take heart, My other self,
I will not let your burdens grow
one ounce too heavy for
your strength.

Response 2              My Jesus, Lord,
I take my daily cross.
I welcome the monotony
that often marks my day,
discomforts of all kinds,
the summers heat, the
winters cold,
my disappointments, tensions,
setbacks, cares.
Remind me often that
In carrying my cross,
I carry Yours with You.
And though I bear a
sliver only
of Your cross,
You carry ail of mine,
except a sliver,
in return.

Station 3 -- Jesus Falls

Jesus voice             The God who made the universe,
and holds it in existence
by His will alone,
becomes, as man, too weak to bear
a piece of timber's weight.
How human in His weakness is
the Son of Man.
My Father willed it thus.
I could not be your model
otherwise.
If you would be My other self,
you also must accept without complaint
your human frailties.

Response 3              Lord Jesus, how can I
refuse?
I willingly accept my
weaknesses,
my irritations and my moods,
my headaches and fatigue,
all my defects of body,
mind,
and soul.
Because they are Your
will for me,
these handicaps, of my humanity,
I gladly suffer them.
Make me content with all
my discontents,
but give me strength to struggle
after You.

First Reading:

A reading from the Prophet Isaiah

See, my servant shall prosper; he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high. Just as there were many who were astonished at him-- so marred was his appearance, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of mortals--so he shall startle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which had not been told them they shall see, and that which they had not heard they shall contemplate.

Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account. Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By a perversion of justice he was taken away. Who could have imagined his future? For he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people. They made his grave with the wicked and his tomb with the rich, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him with pain. When you make his life an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, and shall prolong his days; through him the will of the LORD shall prosper. Out of his anguish he shall see light; he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge. The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

The Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God.

Station 4 -- Jesus Meets His Mother

Jesus voice             My Mother sees Me whipped.
She sees Me kicked and
driven like a beast.
She counts My every wound.
But though her soul cries
out in agony,
no protest or complaint
escapes her lips
or even enters on her thoughts
She shares My martyrdom-
and I share hers.
We hide no pain,
no sorrow,
from each others eyes.
This is My Fathers will.

Response 4              My Jesus, Lord,
I know what You are
telling me.
To watch the pain of
those we love
is harder than to bear our own.
To carry my cross after You,
I, too, must stand and watch
the sufferings of my dear ones;
the heartaches, sicknesses and
grief of those I love.
And I must let them
watch mine, too.
I do believe--
for those who love You
all things work together
unto good.
They must!

Station 5 -- Simon Helps Jesus

Jesus voice             My strength is gone;
I can no longer bear the cross alone.
And so the legionnaires
make Simon give Me aid.
This Simon is like you, My other self.
Give Me your strength.
Each time you lift some
burden from
Anothers back,
you lift as with your very hand
the crosss awful weight
that crushes Me.

Response 5              Lord, make me realize
that every time I wipe a dish,
pick up an object off the floor,
assist a child in some small task,
or give another preference
in traffic or the store;
each time I feed the hungry,
clothe the naked,
teach the ignorant,
or lend my hand in any way
it matters not to whom
my name is Simon.
And the kindness I extend to
them I really give to You.

Must Jesus bear the cross alone

Must Jesus bear the cross alone,
and all the world go free?
No, theres a cross for everyone,
and theres a cross for me.

How happy now the saints of God,
who once went sorrowing here;
they rest in joy, lifes crown is theirs,
they know no pain nor tear.

They trod the path the Saviour trod,
they bore the cross he bore;
and none may look to wear the crown
without the cross before.

Then help me, Lord, my cross to bear,
till death shall set me free,
and so at last obtain my crown,
for theres a crown for me.

Station 6 --Veronica Helps Jesus

Jesus voice             Can you be brave enough,
My other self,
to wipe My bloody face?
Where is My face, you ask?
At home whenever eyes fill
up with tears,
at work when tensions rise,
on playgrounds, in the
slums, the courts, the
hospitals, the jails--
wherever suffering exists--
My face is there.
And there I look for you
to wipe away My blood and
tears.

Response 6              Lord, what You ask is hard.
It calls for courage and
self-sacrifice,
and I am weak.
Please, give me strength.
Dont let me run away
because of fear.
Lord, live in me
and act in me
and love in me.
And not in me alone--in
all men--so that we may reveal
no more Your bloody but
Your glorious face on earth.

Station 7 -- Jesus Falls Again

Jesus voice             This seventh step, My other self,
is one that tests your will.
From this fall learn to persevere
in doing good.
The time will come
when all your efforts seem to fail
and you will think,
I cant go on.
Then turn to Me,
My heavy-laden one,
and I will give you rest.
Trust Me
and carry on.

Response 7              Give me your courage, Lord.
When failure presses
heavily on me
and I am desolate,
stretch out Your hand
to lift me up.
I know I must not cease,
but persevere,
in doing good.
But help me, Lord.
Alone theres nothing I can do.
With You, I can do anything
You ask.
I will.

Second Reading:

A reading from the Letter to the Hebrews

This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds, he also adds, I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more. Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

Station 8 -- Jesus Consoles the Women

Jesus voice             How often had I longed to take
the children of Jerusalem
and gather them to Me.
But they refused.
But now these women weep for Me
and My heart mourns for them--
mourns for their sorrows
that will come.
I comfort those who seek to solace Me.
How gentle can you be, My other self,
How kind?

Response 8 My Jesus,
Your compassion
in Your passion
is beyond compa