Veronica and Her Towel ~ The Sixth Station

ONLY WOMEN ARE KIND TO JESUS while he walks to his execution. What gratitude Jesus must have felt for Veronica's gift - a towel for his face. 

Spiritual living invites us to ever deepening gratitude. When I awake in the morning, even before opening my eyes, to be surprised that I have eyes for seeing. There are more than forty million people in the world who can't see. 

I have begun gratefulness once I have started to cultivate the attitude that everything is a gift, that I don't have to earn it, beg for it, buy it or score it. My being in this very moment is a gift, to read these words, to detect colors, to notice what's beautiful - this is to have begun gratefulness. 

The poor are more grateful than we are in the rich nations, because the poor expect nothing; they take nothing for granted. The poor don't tell themselves, "There is more to have than what we already have." On Good Friday, Jesus walked alone, entitled to nothing, surrounded by enemies calling for his death. And then, out of nowhere, Veronica appeared, offering the kindness of her towel.

Our Father Who Art in Heaven...

Hail Mary, full of grace...

Glory be to the Father...

Simon Helps Jesus Carry The Cross ~ The Fifth Station

Aloysius Gonzaga was born in 1568 into a family of tremendous wealth and aristocratic prestige. By age seven he showed an inclination to religious life. By age nine he possessed the clarity and conscience to describe the society in which he lived as full of "fraud, dagger, poison and lust." At age twelve he was invested as a prince, but decided to transfer his superabundant inheritance to his brother, Ridolfo.

At age thirteen, Aloysius entered the Society of Jesus, against the furious and abusive protests of his family. Even priests and bishops were sent to convince Aloysius to give up the idea. But defeated by the boy's powerful perseverance, Aloysius' father relented, allowing him to go off to begin priesthood studies at Rome in 1585. 

In 1589 there was an outbreak of the plague in Rome and Aloysius asked permission to help take care of the many who were dying. Father Cepari describes the times: "It was a horrible thing to see the dying creeping to the hospitals, stinking and loathsome, and sometimes to behold them giving up their last breath in corners or falling down head first on the stairs." Within two years Aloysius became a victim of the disease himself and died. 

Father Martindale writes of Aloysius: "By nature he was a hard man; uncompromising; going through life with his teeth clenched." With the energy his family gave to warfare and family fighting, Aloysius gave himself to Christ - a new Simon of Cyrene helping Jesus to carry his cross. 

Do I ever clench my teeth for the things of Christ?

Jesus Meets His Mother ~ The Fourth Station

Fillippo Lippi ~ Edge of Mary's Mantle

"Save the best til last," the saying goes. And in the Genesis account woman was the last piece of God's creation. Then we marvel at the courage of the faithful women who followed Jesus from Galilee and his own mother on this day of his dying. 

But what has happened to women? They seem to be losing all sense of their own dignity and worth. Failed women are our nightly entertainment. The hunted woman, the spurned woman, the maniacal woman, the aggressive seductress. Showing everything, women have lost their mystery. Celebrity women in and out of jails and rehabs have their children taken away. Posing media toys set up for manipulation, the weather lady sensualized, women have become cartoons and objects of ridicule and scorn.

But woman is the same creature as Mary, who trembles before the Archangel, who cultivates strength and speaks the word that brings Life into the world, who stands in solidarity with suffering humanity. Indeed, Mary's only degradation is that she is determined to stand by her crucified Son who dies a slave, a criminal outsider.

Mother! Call her with a loud voice. She is listening to you; she sees you in danger, perhaps, and she - your holy mother Mary - offers you, along with the grace of her son, the refuge of her arms, the tenderness of her embrace...and you will find yourself with added strength for the new battle." Benedict XVI