Map of the Stations St. Peters Anglican Church 901 Thomasville Rd.

Tallahassee, FL 32303

Walking the

Stations of the Cross

Via Dolorosa at Taproots Northside Education Center 4784 Thomasville Rd. Tallahassee, FL 32309

St. Peters Anglican Church Tallahassee, Florida

Prayer Before the Stations

To be said silently by all participants

The First Station

Jesus is Condemned to Death

O My God, I am heartily sorry for having offended you, and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell, but most of all because they offend you, my God, who are all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of your grace, to confess my sins, to repent of them and to amend my life. My Lord Jesus Christ, with a contrite heart and a penitential spirit, I purpose now to make the Way of the Cross in commemoration of your most bitter Passion, and of your sorrowful death on Calvary. I adore you and bless you, O God of infinite mercy. With all my heart I thank you, divine Savior, for the unutterable love which causes you to endure for me the cruel death of the Cross. Amen.
After a period of silence, the Officiant begins

We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you: For by your holy cross you have redeemed the world. Pilate said to them, Which of the two do you want me to release for you? And they said, Barabbas. Pilate said to them, Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ? They all said, Let him be crucified. And he said, Why, what evil has he done? But they shouted all the more, Let him be crucified. Then Pilate released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified. (Matthew 27:22-23, 26) Let us pray (Silence) O Jesus, it was not so much Pilate as our sins that condemned you to die on the Cross. Grant, by your grace, that we may hate our sins from the bottom of our hearts and by true repentance obtain your mercy and pardon. Amen. O Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, Have mercy upon us.

V. We will glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ: R. In whom is our salvation, our life and resurrection. Let us pray. (Silence) O God who, by the Passion of your Son Jesus Christ, our Lord, has loosened the bonds of death, that heritage of the first sin to which all men of later times did succeed: make us so conformed to Him that, as we bear the likeness of earthly nature, so we may by sanctification bear the likeness of heavenly grace. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Second Station

Jesus Takes up His Cross

The Third Station

Jesus Falls for the First Time

We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you. For by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the praetorium, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe upon him, and plaiting a crown of thorns they put it on his head, and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him they mocked him, saying Hail, King of the Jews! And they spat upon him, and took the reed and struck him upon the head. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe, and put his own clothes on him, and led him away to crucify him. (Matthew 27:27-31) Let us pray (Silence) O Jesus, you carried your own cross, and you ask us to follow you on this path. Help us to take up the cross and not to shun it. May we never complain or become discouraged by lifes trials. Help us to follow the path of love and, in submitting to its demands, to find true joy. Amen. O Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, Have mercy upon us.

We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you: For by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:4-6) Let us pray: (Silence) O Jesus, you bore the heavy burden of the cross and you fell under its weight, the weight of our numerous sins. May the thought of your sufferings move us to imitate your humility and to abandon our self-destructive pride that we may be saved from our fall into sin. Amen. O Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, Have mercy upon us.

The Fourth Station

Jesus Meets His Blessed Mother

The Fifth Station

Simon of Cyrene Helps Jesus Carry His Cross

We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you: For by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world. Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed. And his mother kept all these things in her heart. (Luke 2:33-35; 51) Let us pray: (Silence) O Jesus, how painful it was for you to meet your afflicted Mother and how painful it was for her to meet you, her beloved Son, laden with the Cross and going to die for our sins. Give us grace that, like Mary, we too may follow on the way of the Cross with single minded devotion and faithfulness. Amen. O Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, Have mercy upon us.

We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you: For by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world. As they were marching out, they came upon a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: this man they compelled to carry his cross. (Matthew 27:32) Then Jesus told his disciples, If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 16:24-25) Let us pray: (Silence) O Jesus, may it be our privilege also to bear your Cross as did Simon of Cyrene. May we glory in nothing else for by your Cross the world is crucified to us and we are crucified to the world. May we never shrink from suffering but be counted worthy to suffer for your sake. Amen. O Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, Have mercy upon us.

The Sixth Station

Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus

The Seventh Station

Jesus Falls for the Second Time

We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you: For by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world. He had no form or comeliness that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. (Isaiah 53:2-3) Thou hast said, Seek ye my face. My heart says to thee, Thy face, Lord, I do seek. Hide not thy face from me. (Psalm 27:8-9) Let us pray: (Silence) O Jesus, may the contemplation of your suffering move us with the deepest compassion, make us hate our sins and kindle in our hearts a more fervent love of you. May your image be graven on our minds, until we are transformed into your likeness. Amen. O Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, Have mercy upon us.

We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you: For by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world. Behold, O Lord, for I am in distress, my soul is in tumult, my heart is wrung within me. My eyes are spent with weeping; my soul is in tumult; my heart is poured out in grief. I am a man who has seen affliction under the rod of the Lords wrath; he has driven and brought me to darkness without any light; surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long. He has filled me with bitterness, he has sated me with wormwood. (Lamentations 1;20; 2:11; 3:1-2,15) Let us pray: (Silence) O Jesus, you have borne all our burdens and you continue to carry us. The weight of our sin has made you fall. How often have we grieved you by our own falling back into sin! Lift us up, for by ourselves we can not rise from our bondage to the world, the flesh and the Devil. By the grace of your Cross grant us to rise from our fall into sin. Amen. O Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, Have mercy upon us.

The Eighth Station

The Women of Jerusalem Mourn For Our Lord

The Ninth Station

Jesus Falls for the Third Time

We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you: For by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world. And there followed him a great multitude of the people, and of women who bewailed and lamented him. But Jesus, turning to them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold the days are coming when they will say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never gave suck! They will begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us. (Luke 23:2730) Let us pray: (Silence) O Jesus, you taught the women of Jerusalem to weep over the sins of Jerusalem; grant that as we meditate upon your sufferings we may weep and mourn over our sins which were the cause of them and which you bore to the Cross that we might be purified. Amen. O Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, Have mercy upon us.

We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you: For by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world. He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes; my soul is bereft of peace, I have forgotten what happiness is; so I say, Gone is my glory, and my expectation from the Lord. Remember my affliction and my bitterness, the wormwood and the gall. My soul continually thinks of it and is bowed down within me. The Lord is my portion, says my soul, Therefore I will hope in him. For the Lord will not cast off for ever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the sons of men. (Lamentations 3:16-20; 24; 31-33) Let us pray: (Silence) O Jesus, grant that we who are incessantly afflicted by the weight of our sins may not be crushed by it but may be delivered from our sins and strengthened in holiness by your blessed Cross and Passion. Amen. O Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, Have mercy upon us.

The Tenth Station

Jesus is Stripped of His Garments

The Eleventh Station

Jesus is Nailed to the Cross

We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you: For by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax, it is melted within my breast; my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaves to my jaws; thou dost lay me in the dust of death. A company of evildoers encircle me; they divide my garments among them, and for my raiment they cast lots. (Psalm 22:14, 15, 16, 18) And they cast lots to divide his garments. And the people stood by watching; but the rulers scoffed at him, saying He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One! The soldiers also mocked him. (Luke 23:34, 35, 36) Let us pray: (Silence) O Jesus, you endured this public humiliation for our shameful deeds. Strip us, we pray you, of all false shame, conceit and pride and enable us to humble ourselves voluntarily in this life that we may escape everlasting shame in the world to come. Amen. O Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, Have mercy upon us.

We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you: For by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was not deceit in his mouth. (Isaiah 53:7-9) And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means the place of a skull), they offered him wine to drink, mingled with gall; but when he tasted it he would not drink it. And when they had crucified him they sat down and kept watch over him there. And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, This is Jesus the King of the Jews. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, You who would destroy the Temple and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross. So also the chief priests, with the scribes and the elders, mocked him, saying, He saved others; he can not save himself. He trusts in God; let God deliver him. (Matthew 27:33-34; 35; 36-37; 39-41; 42; 43) Let us pray: (Silence) O Jesus, as you were nailed to the Cross, fasten our hearts there also, that they may be

united to you until death shall strike us with its mortal blow and, united to you in heart and soul, we may share in the fruit of your death. Amen. O Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, Have mercy upon us.

The Twelfth Station

Jesus Dies on the Cross

We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you: For by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world. Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mothers sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, Woman, behold your son! Then he said to the disciple, Behold, your mother! And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home. After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the scripture), I thirst. And a bowl full of vinegar stood there; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished; and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (John 18:25; 26-30) Let us pray: (Silence) O, Jesus, the most pure and holy fruit of the Virgin Marys womb: Your mother yielded herself to the redemptive will of the Father in your conception and followed you to your bitter death on the Cross. Grant that your whole Church may, by your grace, be evermore conformed to her example of love and faithfulness. Amen. At the cross her station keeping, stood the mournful Mother weeping, close to Jesus to the last.

The Thirteenth Station

Jesus is Taken Down From the Cross

The Fourteenth Station

Jesus is Laid in the Tomb

We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you: For by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world. Since it was the day of Preparation, in order to prevent the bodies from remaining on the cross on the sabbath, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. But 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 at once there came out blood and water. For these things took place that the scripture might be fulfilled, Not a bone of him shall be broken. And again another scripture says, They shall look on him whom they have pierced. After this, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him leave. So he came and took away his body. (John 19:31; 33-34; 36-37; 38) Let us pray: (Silence) Faithful Cross! above all other. One and only noble Tree! None in foliage, none in blossom, none in fruit thy peer may be: Sweetest wood and sweetest iron, sweetest Weight is hung on thee. He endured the nails, the spitting, vinegar and spear, and reed. From that holy Body broken, Blood and water forth proceed. Earth and stars and sky and ocean, by that flood from stain are freed.

We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you: For by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world. And Joseph took the body of Jesus, and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock; and he rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and departed. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the sepulchre. (Matthew 27:59-61) Let us pray: (Silence) Thou alone was counted worthy this worlds ransom to uphold; for a shipwrecked race preparing Harbor, like the Ark of old; With the sacred Blood anointed from the smitten Lamb that rolled. To the Trinity be glory everlasting, as is meet: Equal to the Father, equal to the Son and Paraclete: Triunal Unity, whose praises all created things repeat.

Concluding Prayer

We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you: For by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world. Let us pray: (Silence) O God, who for the redemption of the world was pleased to be born; to be circumcised; to be rejected; to be betrayed; to be bound with rope; to be led to the slaughter; to be shamefully gazed at; to be falsely accused; to be scourged and torn; to be spit upon and crowned with thorns; to be mocked and reviled; to be beaten and stripped; to be nailed to the Cross and to die a shameful death; to be reckoned among thieves and to be pierced with a spear: Through your most holy Passion, which we, your sinful servants, call to mind, and by your holy Cross and gracious death, deliver us from the bondage of sin and the desolation of hell and lead us to where you have gone before us that we might be with you, who with the Father and the Holy Ghost lives and reigns, one God in glory everlasting. Amen.
(The concluding prayer was adapted from John Henry Newman.)

All Depart in Silence

St. Peters Anglican Church 901 Thomasville Road Tallahassee, Fl 32303

850.701.0664 www.saint-peters.net