Is There Any Suffering Like My Suffering? The Eighth Station: Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem
Reflection: There was following Jesus a great crowd of people, and among them were some women who were bewailing and lamenting Him. Jesus turning to them said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.”(Luke 23. 27-28)
Meditation: Come, all you who pass by the way: Look and see whether there is any suffering like My suffering, suffering with which the Lord has afflicted Me on the day of his blazing wrath. At this I weep, My eyes run with tears. Far from Me are all who could console Me, Far away are any who might revive Me (Lam. 1: 12-16).
The Royal Way of The Holy Cross
Behold the Cross is all, and everything lies in dying to yourself; and there is no other way to life and to true inward peace, except through the way of the Holy Cross and of daily mortification.
Go where you will, seek whatever you will, and you shall find no higher way above or safer way below, than the way of the Holy Cross.
Dispose and order all things according to your own will and judgment, and you shall always find something to suffer either willingly or unwillingly, and thus you shall always find your cross. For you shall either feel bodily pain, or within your soul, tribulation of spirit (From the Imitation of Christ, Bk 2, Ch. 12).
Pray: Beloved Lord Jesus, with tears of pity these women of Jerusalem responded to You, broken, bruised, and beaten, on the road to Calvary. Deepen our faith, we beg You, so that we may see You in our brothers and sisters, bruised by our envy, beaten down by injustice, and broken by our greed and our indifference. Amen.
