A Gospel Way of the Passion with St Francis and St Clare
The Paschal Mystery is the heart of our faith as Christians.
René Giraud, the French philosopher who returned to his belief as a Catholic said,"violence is the heart and secret spirit of the sacred." He goes on to point out that, in the paschal mystery of Christ, this terrible chain is broken forever. According to him, Jesus unmasks and breaks the mechanism of the scapegoat that makes violence sacred, making himself the victim of all violence.
It is no longer man who offers sacrifices to the gods, but God who 'sacrifices' Himself for humanity. The Son of God, as St Clare says, has become our way; we follow the fulfillment of the Lord Jesus giving himself in the Last Supper through the path of the cross to the victory over all violence and death that is His resurrection.
The Way of the Cross is a Franciscan devotion, originally suggested by St Leonard of Portmaurice to help those who came to pray at his 'retiro' to discover their own worth in God's eyes. He would say to those who came to pray with him: "You, you alone, were worth all this to God!"
The Son of God has become our way, freely and in joy we live with Christ on this journey:
In the silence that envelops this night, in the silence that envelops Holy Saturday, touched by the limitless love of God, we live awaiting the dawn of the third day, the dawn of the victory of the love of God, the dawn of the light that enables the eyes of the heart to see life, difficulties and suffering in a new way. Our failures, our disillusionments, our bitternesses that seem to signal the collapse of everything, are enlightened by hope. The act of love of the cross, confirmed by the Father and the radiant light of the resurrection, envelopes and transforms everything.
From betrayal, friendship can be born;
from rejection, pardon;
from hate, love.
Benedict XVI
End of the Via Crucis April 2 2010
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The scriptural format of the Stations that follow has been used on Good Friday in the Colosseum. The Scripture quotations used here are taken from the message version. We have chosen it for the sense of urgency it imparts.The illustrations are from our public chapel,
Message translation. Copyright © by Eugene Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995. NavPress Publishing Group.
Quotations from St Clare mainly from Regis Armstrong OFM Cap Clare, the Early Documents.
Quotations from St Francis mainly from Regis Armstrong OFM Cap Francis, the Early Documents I