Ninth Station

READING

MARK 15:34-37

At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, ‘Listen, he is calling for Elijah.’ And someone ran, filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink, saying, ‘Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.’ Then Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last.

PRAYER

Jesus, you know what it’s like to feel alone, lost and afraid, betrayed and abandoned. Walk with us and show us how to walk with others, who live in fear and face death through hunger, thirst and conflict. Show us how to pray for sisters and brothers that we have never met, but who are always loved by you. Amen

REFLECTION: SURRENDER

God dies; the earth shakes, all seems lost. The Son of God cries a cry of abandonment and commits his soul into the Fathers hands

In defeat victory, for through this apparent great loss, redemption is born, hope is here for each and every one of us. Because Jesus identifies with the broken, the lost, the godforsaken.

So that the furthest of us on our darkest days would know we are not forgotten In Jesus’ surrender we see that the stretch of God’s love, the width of God’s embrace, is deeper and fuller and more alive than we could ever dare imagine. In Jesus’ defeat we stand in shock at the foot of the cross, but with the thief who found hope at the last we realise that we are not abandoned but loved.

READING AND REFLECTION AT THE NINTH STATION

READING

PRAYER

REFLECTION: SURRENDER

TENTH STATION: JESUS IS PLACED IN THE TOMB