The Eighth Station ~ Jesus Speaks to the Women of Jerusalem

THESE WOMEN ARE UNABLE to keep from demonstrating their affection for Jesus. Maybe they were ignored by the people around; maybe others told them to be quiet, but they refused. Either way, they cry for Jesus out of a deep inner urgency.

I can feel a sense of urgency because the law requires I wear my seat belt, otherwise I risk getting a ticket. Or urgency can flow from an inner personal need calling me to action. "My baby is crying and I must hang-up the phone and see what's going on." But these women of Jerusalem are crying because they must. They cannot do otherwise. Love compels them.

When Jesus finished washing his disciples' feet he said, "As you have seen me do, so you must do." I hear the urgency, the imperative of Jesus' words: I must love! But I must not  love Jesus because I want something from him, even forgiveness for my faults. I want to love Jesus so to console him for every offense done to him past or future. I want to love him with all the strength I can find in my heart with nothing held back. I want to be daring in my love for Jesus, loving him in the great company of Stephen and Lawrence, Francis and Clare, Peter and Paul, Perpetua and Felicity, Kateri and Teresa.

Some silent moments

Our Father Who art in heaven...

Hail Mary full of grace...

Glory be to the Father...

The Eighth Station ~ Jesus Speaks to the Women of Jerusalem

SOBBING, WAILING WOMEN meet Jesus along the way as he carries his cross to Calvary. He stops to tell them not to cry for him but for themselves and for your children. This is a mysterious saying cry for your children.

In Italy there is a Christmas tale told with a dark side. A mother has lost her baby in the slaughter of the Holy Innocents, ordered by Herod who was jealous of the newborn boy being called a king. But Joseph, warned of the danger by a dream-angel, took Mary and the Infant Jesus to the safety of Egypt.

But this other mother, overwhelmed with grief, packed her child's belongings in a bag and searched among all the remaining children for her own. The long travel and worry caused her to grow ugly, worn out and beggarly. 

Finally she found the Child Jesus, placing the bag of clothes at his feet, embittered that her baby had been killed while Jesus escaped. But Jesus blessed her and gave her the new name La Befana, which means The Bestower. Though her sadness remained, Befana, outwardly ugly but inwardly beautiful, left Jesus and spent the rest of her days giving gifts to children.

And let us cry too for the dead children - the children who died at Bethlehem, who die in abortions, and the children who died (and die still) at Wounded Knee, Hiroshima, Dresden, My Lai, Gaza, Beirut, Birmingham, Baghdad, Calcutta, Chicago...

Silence

Our Father Who Art in Heaven...

Hail Mary full of grace...

Glory be to the Father...