Experience the Cross through Praying the Stations

God, You created us in your own image and likeness. Still, we find it so hard to be like you! Help us to feel sorrow when we witness someone sin. Help us to share the burden of pain when we watch someone else suffer.

Help us to call out for mercy when we see someone persecuted. Help us to have the courage to demand justice when the innocent are falsely accused. Help us to be more like you.

Lord God… Help us to defeat sin and hatred and violence with love. Help us to heal with love. Help us to build…and clean and grow and unite and free with the power of love. Help us to carry our crosses with love.

God! Help me to rejoice in my fragile nature. Never let me loose sight of the truth that you did not create me to live in this world forever. Help me to use my time here wisely… and in a way that leaves me fitting to become part of your eternal glory… to which there will be no end. On those occasions when I fall… Raise me up!

God! Help me to be there for others in their time of need…and give me the humility and the wisdom to ask for help when I am overwhelmed by the challenges and burdens of life. Above all…give me the grace to know what you expect of me and then to do your will.

God! Help me to see and accept the opportunities that you send my way. Give me the strength and the courage to step forward and take up the Cross. Let me accept humiliation, embarrassment or pain…If it somehow helps me in the work of salvation. What an honor it is to walk behind Jesus…. Helping to carry the cross. May I always accept my challenges with joy and hope.

Lord! Control what influences us. Help us to reject that which makes us unpleasing to you. Place into us…a hunger for justice…and thirst for righteousness…and impress on our hearts and lives the image of your son Jesus Christ. Let each of us…show the face of the Lord to the world.

Lord! We give up so easily. Just about anything will challenge our faith… weaken our commitment… provide a ready reason to lay aside our work as disciples. Help us to remember that you are always with us… and that when we fall…you are there to raise us up…dust us off…and fill us with the grace that we need to continue our pilgrim journey home to you.

Lord! Dry our eyes and calm our emotions so that we can better see your hand in all events…and come to understand that you have control over all things. Keep us focused on your plans for us and give us the strength to do your will.

Lord God…my falls weaken me more and more until I see no reason to stand again. And so I lay there in the filth of sin and defeat…pushed down by my own bad habits. Help me to experience the resolve of Jesus. Help me to rise anew with each fall…until that day I rise into your glory for all eternity.

Lord! Help each of us to strip away those things that cover up the goodness and love you placed within us…when you called us into life. Even as we share in the responsibility and shame of the cross…make us worthy to share in its final victory.

O Lord…may the end of my life be the best of it. And…may my closing acts be my best acts. With my last breath…let me lift my spirit to you…so that you might embrace me with eternity.

Jesus…with the greatest of reverence we look up at your cross…and fervently pray that this will be a day of conversion for us and for the whole world. Strengthen our faith…fill us with hope…and give us the grace to treat one another with justice, peace, and love.

Soul of Christ, sanctify us Body of Christ, save us Blood of Christ, inebriate us Water from the side of Christ, wash us Passion of Christ, strengthen us O Good Jesus, hear us Within your wounds, hide us

Never let us be separated from you Against all evil, defend us At the door of our deaths, call us Bid us come to you That with your saints we may praise you Forever and ever…Amen!

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours now and forever.

Lord Jesus Christ…before you gave your life for us, you said to your family and friends…My peace I leave with you…My Peace I give to you! Look not at our sins but the faith of your church and grant us the peace and unity of your kingdom where you live forever and ever.

The Stations of the Cross: Art work by St. Thomas Aquinas grade school children, Saginaw, MI Text for the stations by Fr. Randy Kelly, Pastor Special thanks to Sr. Ann, Principal Read by Sr. Laura