(LifeSiteNews) — La Salette Boys’ Academy is a boarding school in Illinois dedicated to the education and formation of young Catholic gentlemen that are ready to go into the world and witness to the Faith. Run by the Society of St. Pius X, the students are immersed in the life of the Church through her liturgy and culture. Among the staff there are four priests and two brothers who guide these boys in their spiritual, academic, social, and athletic lives.
As I happened to listen recently to the 14 Stations of the Cross as they were written and delivered at the Friday devotions by some of the seniors of the school, it struck me how thoughtful and beautiful they were. They touched me deeply, and I thought to myself: “this is some of the many good fruits that comes from this school.” Thus, I asked Father Timothy Sick, the Headmaster of the Academy, for permission to print them here on LifeSiteNews for the sake of our dear readers.
This is exactly what we need in our time of disorder and distress: to see the young generation preparing itself to pick up the battle for the Faith where others have left it when passing and going to their eternal reward. I know that my husband, Robert Hickson, who passed a year and a half ago, would be pleased to hear these reflections of young men.
In our time, hope is needed. And trust that God is already in the middle of preparing the ground for a rebuilding of the Catholic Church and of Christendom. There are, as Bishop Athanasius Schneider likes to say, little snowdrops underneath the bleak and sad looking landscape we now experience, ready to bud forth and announce the coming of spring.
In this view, I hope that these 14 Stations of the high school students of La Salette – or Lions, as they call themselves – bring you graces of reflection on Our Blessed Lord’s suffering and death. And may they also give you joy, gratitude, and hope, as they have done for me.
Stations of the Cross
The First Station – Jesus is Condemned to Death
Five days ago, Jesus triumphantly entered Jerusalem, greeted by crowds waving palm branches and laying down their cloaks to “prepare the way of the Lord.” People hailed him as a hero, heedless of the hypocritical high priests and Pharisees; people who firmly believed in Him as well as those who, drawn by the scene, were simply cheering with the crowd. Now these same people, goaded on by the conspiring chief priests and Pharisees, are shouting for Jesus again—only this time they are calling for His death by crucifixion.
Jesus’s fate lies in the hands of Pontius Pilate, who knows Christ to be innocent, even stating explicitly that he “finds no cause of death in Him.” Yet he is a proud and ambitious man, dissatisfied with being relegated to this far corner of the Roman Empire, and fears a Jewish revolt will end his career. So he tries appeasement: first by having Jesus scourged, next by offering to release Jesus or Barabbas, a dangerous criminal. Rather than heed his wife’s advice to release Jesus, he gives in to the mob’s demands, caring more for his worldly ambition than his immortal soul.
Consider how like unto Pilate we are, when, motivated by love of temporal happiness, we lose sight of or neglect the spiritual happiness for which we were made; or how, in compromising to the demands and of the World, we simply distance ourselves from God; or when, ignoring the voices of Reason and Conscience, we choose to sin, thereby re-condemning Christ to the Agony of the Cross.
The Second Station – Jesus embraces the Cross
Jesus is the foolish lover. We are not worthy of His love yet He loves us exceedingly. He gives everything to us out of love, and receives little in return. He was even willing to sacrifice Himself on the cross in order to redeem us. One drop of Christ’s blood would have satisfied for our redemption, but Jesus was willing to give all, and undergo this ultimate sacrifice of God to God out of His infinite love. Often, we shy away from suffering and try to escape our crosses because we do not want to suffer, but Jesus embraced His heavy cross without hesitating. Although the cross came with great sorrow and pain, He wanted to suffer and die on the cross because it was the Father’s will, and thereby His will. Grant, Lord, that by the grace of this station we may have the strength to willingly embrace our crosses and give ourselves out of love wholly to God.
The Third Station – Jesus falls the first time
Previous to this first fall, Our Lord had surpassed the amount of pain experienced by any man ever to have lived. His body had received so much torture and mutilation that, were it not for His divine power, He would be dead. And now the weight of the cross bears down upon our Savior inflicting immense pain. Yet it was not so much the extreme pain that hurt Him as it was the sorrow He carried in knowing that despite His efforts and love to save us, we would still turn our back on Him. Jesus lay on the ground exhausted, friendless, and knowing full well of every future suffering he still had yet to endure. He could have spared Himself and died there under His cross and yet His divine will prevented this so that He might further manifest the intensity of His love for us. Despite the terror of His future sufferings weighing upon Him, Our Lord, in His human nature, trusted that His Father would provide Him with the means necessary to fulfill what the Father had in store for Him. By that trust Our Lord rose from his fall, strengthened by the Father, and continued to carry His cross. Let us therefore from this fall realize that no matter what cross God gives us to bear, He will always give us the strength to carry it in His footsteps even when it seems impossible.
The Fourth Station – Jesus meets His Sorrowful Mother
“How long have I suffered for you! …you will never be able to make up to me what I have endured for your sake.” Those are the words of Our Lady of La Salette. 1800 years after the Passion of Our Lord she still reminds us of her great sorrow, because “we take no least notice of that”. Instead we forget about it, and we go on in or lives disregarding the sufferings that Our Lady and Our Lord endured for us. Her sorrow, says St. Bernardine, could not be equaled even “if all the sorrows of the world were united.” How is it possible that Our Lady could undergo such pain and yet we abstain from the slightest discomfort? It is because she loves. The soul that loves feels no burden, for nothing is sweeter than love, nothing stronger, nothing higher, and nothing more generous for it proceeds from God and on God alone can it rest. We must strive to always love God in all things. Let that love be in all your actions and in all your thoughts. Nothing that is done be it suffered or enjoyed, for the love of God, however small, will pass without merited in the sight of God.
The Fifth Station – Simon of Cyrene Helps Jesus Carry the Cross
Simon of Cyrene was simply passing by when he witnessed Our Lord carrying the heavy oaken beams. He saw the blood soaking through Christ’s garments, the crown of thorns upon His sacred head, and the slow, painful steps which were leading Him to His death. The Cyrenian wanted nothing to do with Him. Then he heard his name shouted by one of the soldiers, calling him to help carry the cross, for Our Lord’s strength was failing. Reluctantly, Simon came forward and placed the cross firmly on his own shoulders, carrying it alongside his God.
How often do we, miserable sinners that we are, see Simon’s reaction and say to ourselves, “If I was there, I would have ran to Christ’s side and helped Him no matter what the cost.” And then, we promptly flee from the cross we are asked to bear in our daily lives.
Let us learn the lesson that Simon learned. We must embrace the cross that is given to us and carry it as far up the mountain as God asks of us, so that, in the end, we will hear those words of consolation as Our Lord helps us to carry ours towards paradise.
The Sixth Station – Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus
As Jesus walked along the road, He quickly became almost unrecognizable due to the dirt and blood. Saint Veronica, abandoning her fear of the Romans, went to Jesus and helped Him in His passion through her kindness. She wiped the face of our Savior and was rewarded for it by receiving the imprint of His Sacred face on her veil. The difference between her and the other women of Jerusalem who weep over Jesus is that she took action. She sought out Christ even though it was demanding and uncomfortable. Her example shows us the importance of taking action in our physical and spiritual lives to follow up our mind’s determinations or resolutions. Let us pray to Saint Veronica for the strength necessary to act according to God’s will and not simply to have it in mind.
The Seventh Station – Jesus Falls the Second Time
Splintered, bruised, battered, parched, starved, crowned with thorns, Our Lord shoulders this burden of the sins of all humanity, but he weakens with every step until He falls again, crushed by our sins for the second time on His journey. Weighed down by the Cross and His own weariness, Our Lord lies upon the dirt. He could end it all right now, all the suffering, all the torments, the ridicule. All it would take is the snap of his fingers, the blink of an eye, even just the thought could rid Him of this pain. Any other man would be incapable of moving forward. But His mission is too great, too noble to stop. He knows the bearing this deed will have on all men when He completes this task. And so, tired beyond our reckoning, He stands up and continues on to Golgotha. We all desire to imitate Christ during our lives, but how often do we give up? We ease our penances and pamper our bodies, selfishly. But Our Lord refused Himself so that we might live. We should look to Christ after this fall for courage, stand up with Him and push on to Calvary.
The Eighth Station – Jesus meets the Women of Jerusalem
Our Lord, having fallen twice is entering upon the utmost level of human suffering and exhaustion. Ridiculed up to this point by the jeering crowds He comes upon a group of women who are weeping with compassion on account of his innumerable wounds and his body beaten almost beyond recognition. However, these women do not understand the reason for Jesus’ suffering. They fail to perceive any spiritual connection with their own lives and the eternal truth of salvation, and thus Our Lord reprimands them with the shocking words: “weep not for Me, but for yourselves and for your children.” He is suffering for the sins that they have and their future generations will commit. It may seem foolish and ironic for these women to overlook the importance of this moment, but how often do we find ourselves in a very similar situation? How often do we hyper focus things merely of the body while overlooking weaknesses in our spiritual lives? Let us beseech our suffering Savior that we might gain a deeper insight into the relation that our daily duties have with the spiritual realities that we so often neglect.
The Ninth Station – Jesus Falls the Third Time
“The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” These words were spoken by Our Lord to the tired Apostles just the night before his death. In this station, Our Lord falls to the ground and fights the battle to rise up again for the third time. This is the battle that so many souls on earth fail to win: the struggle against the weakness of the flesh. Our Lady of Fatima tells us that most souls are lost due to the sins of impurity, that is, a lack of a strong will over the body. Here at La Salette, we strive to put our faculties in order, constantly fighting the laziness of the flesh and always trying to re-establish the reign of our intellect and will over our passions. Reflecting on this third fall of Our Lord, we find that it is not just the physical weight of the Cross, but the shameful weight of our sins that has brought him yet again to the ground. He is covered in blood, grime, and dirt, and nothing would bring Him to continue this humiliating journey except His desire to do the will of His Father and free mankind from the enslavement of sin. Meditating upon His continuation to Calvary after such an agonizing fall, let us learn to refuse the laziness of the flesh, pick up our own cross, and follow Christ until death. When we despair in our failings and lose focus of Christ’s example, may this third fall of Our Lord remind us to strive for final perseverance in our own trails of life.
The Tenth Station – Jesus is Stripped of His Garments
Our Lord, after an agonizing journey, has reached the top of the hill. The soldiers who have accompanied him have beaten him all the way. He is exhausted and bloody. However, He continues to suffer for our salvation, having each one of us in mind during his torment. The soldiers rip the garments off of Our Lord so violently they increase the pain and reopen his wounds. There Christ stands in the midst of them, the most dignified man brought so low. He is the most innocent man and he is treated like the worst of criminals. He did not have to suffer so violently for our salvation, however he wished to show his great love for mankind. He suffered so much and showed His great love for us and how do we repay Him? We reopen His wounds by our sin. We must strip ourselves of all sin and especially strip ourselves of the spirit of the world which hates Our Lord and his teachings.
The Eleventh Station – Jesus is nailed to the cross
After violently being stripped of His garments, Our Lord humbly allowed himself to be thrown on the cross, just as He was humbly laid in the manger thirty-three years earlier. Jesus did not fight or complain that whole journey, but instead embraced it and did it out of His love for us. As tradition holds, this is the place where Adam, who lost Heaven for all mankind, is buried, and it is now where Our Lord will be sacrificed for our salvation. At the sound of the hammer’s first blow, silence covers Calvary, and Our Lord continues to embrace all the pain of His death. Our mother Mary was standing there watching as her beloved son was enduring a death for a horrendous criminal. With every blow of the hammer, Our Lady felt the sword that would pierce her heart being pushed further and further. Just as Our Lord embraced His suffering on the cross, Our Lady accepted her cross and never regretted her Fiat at the Annunciation, when she accepted to be the Mother of God. We cannot even imagine the pains Our Lady went through because, unlike us, Our Lady felt every pain Our Lord went through because of her great motherly love for Him. Let us ask from Mary to help us feel the pain she underwent watching her beloved Son being cruelly put to death as a criminal instead of being treated as the Son of God.
The Twelve Station – Jesus is raised upon the Cross and dies
Our Savior, “the new and true Isaac”, has reached the mountain of sacrifice; the same mountain to which His prototype Isaac was brought by Abraham according to Tradition. The ignominious Mount Calvary was viewed as a place of disgrace where criminals would be condemned and chastised. Now, our innocent Lord was to be raised up on this very mount on a beam of wood for all to see. Imagine the cries from the onlookers: the blasphemies and mockeries coming from the Jews and the thieves crucified beside Him, contrasting with the laments of the kind-heated turning away their heads in horror and pity. All these events must have been like arrows piercing the heart of Our Lady, who stood at the feet of her Son. Picture the nail wounds gushing forth fountains of blood to which the prophet Isaiah calls us to hasten with joy to quench our thirst and wash away the stains of our sins. Envision Our Redeemer suspended on the majestic wood of the cross looking down with mercy on His enemies uttering, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Even in extreme agony, the divine Teacher displays this principle of charity and fraternal love for us to follow. Despite this, we constantly war with our fellow brethren to this day, inflicting more pain on Our Crucified Savior who thirsts to see His children make use of the graces He merited for all. After three hours of agony, “the price of our salvation” imparted His last words and commended His soul into the hands of His Father. Let us emulate Christ our Savior in commending our lives to God every day, always being inclined to do His Will. Likewise, ask Our Lady to impress upon our hearts the grace to never forget the sufferings of the Cross so that we may seek to be exemplar models of the Crucified Christ, and become living “stations” for the world to imitate.
The Thirteen Station – Jesus is taken down from the cross
The more you love a thing, the more painful is its separation from you. No one was capable of loving Christ more than His Mother. No one was more able to feel the desolation of His death, more able to undergo the grief of loss, to understand just what it was they had lost in losing Him. Yet our lady stayed at the foot of the cross, and gently, quietly and sorrowfully accepted his body. This would be the last time that this mother would gaze lovingly at her son. Perhaps, as she cradled the lifeless body of her son, just as she had cradled him as an infant 30 years before, she remembered the words of Simeon, prophesying that a sword would pierce her heart. She had accepted the trial then, and she did not waver now. She had undergone more suffering than any other mother could undergo; she did not hide from her suffering but accepted it in her arms. She only had a few more moments left with him, and she spent them in silent, sorrowful meditation. We have all complained bitterly about the trials we have to suffer, trials not even a fraction of what the Mother of the Crucified had endured. Yet we have all made a commitment to her son, to stand fast in trials, to remain, as she did, at the foot of the cross, to remain, to watch and pray, even while we are racked by the overwhelming throb of loss.
The Fourteenth Station: Christ is laid in the Sepulcher
The Lord of the world is dead. Murdered by those He came to save, Jesus Christ lies lifeless in His mother’s arms. Thirty-three years ago she help that same God as an infant in her arms; now she wraps His body with the same love and tenderness that she had wrapped Him in swaddling clothes in a manger in Bethlehem. Absolutely she knew, but that in no way diminished the pain and anguish she is feeling. And so she sets about the task of burying her son, and absolutely heart-rending undertaking for any mother, but so much more for Our Lady. So close to Our Lord in everything He did, Our Lady must now physically separate herself from her Son with her faith alone remaining, but ever increasing. She makes the final sacrifice and leaves her Son to the interior of the tomb, and walks away fulled with sorrow and faith. The only way for us to find happiness is to bury ourselves in the will of Our Lord through the hands of Our Mother.
