O Merciful Jesus! For the salvation of the human race you submitted to the suffering of the scourging and the crowning with thorns; and allowed yourself to be dragged on these stairs to be led before Pilate. I desire to venerate with deep respect the bloodstained traces of Your divine feet, and I humbly ask, by the merits of Your Passion, to grant that I may one day ascend to the Throne of Glory, where You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen.
1st STEP
O my Jesus! By the anguish of heart you experienced on separating from Your most holy Mother, to go to Your death, have mercy on me!
2nd STEP
O my Jesus! By the mental pain that caused You to sweat blood in the Garden of Olives, have mercy on me!
3rd STEP
O my Jesus! By the intense grief that filled Your heart on seeing Yourself betrayed by Judas, have mercy on me!
4th STEP
O my Jesus! By the pain you felt when led as a criminal through the streets of Jerusalem, have mercy on me!
5th STEP
O my Jesus! By the calmness you showed when brought before the Tribunal and struck in the face, have mercy on me!
6th STEP
O my Jesus! By the patience you showed amid the outrages and mockeries which were hurled towards You throughout the night preceding Your death, have mercy on me!
7th STEP
O my Jesus! By the cruel insults You endured when dragged many times on the Sacred Stairs, have mercy on me!
8th STEP
O my Jesus! By the silence You kept in the presence of those who bore false witness against You, and Pontius Pilate who unjustly condemned You, have mercy on me!
9th STEP
O my Jesus! By the humiliation You endured from Herod and his court, have mercy on me!
10th STEP
O my Jesus! By the shame You felt when stripped of Your clothes and tied to the pillar to be scourged, have mercy on me!
11th STEP
O my Jesus! By the pain You suffered on being scourged and Your Body all covered with wounds and bruises, have mercy on me!
12th STEP
O my Jesus! By the torture You endured when the sharp crown of thorns was placed on Your Sacred Head, have mercy on me!
13th STEP
O my Jesus! By the patience You showed, when clothed with purple rags and with a reed in Your hand, You were ridiculed and treated as a mock-king, have mercy on me!
14th STEP
O my Jesus! By the distress You felt when You heard Your own people cry out against You, and demand Your death with the utmost fury and hatred, have mercy on me!
15th STEP
O my Jesus! By the humiliation You endured when You were compared with Barabbas, and seeing that criminal preferred to Your Divine Person, have mercy on me!
16th STEP
O my Jesus! By the resignation with which You embraced the Cross and proceeded with it upon the road to Calvary, have mercy on me!
17th STEP
0 my Jesus! By the sorrow you felt when meeting Your Mother Mary and witnessing the anguish of her heart, have mercy on me!
18tb STEP
O my Jesus! By the excessive weariness that overcame You, while bearing the burden of the Cross on Your shoulders, have mercy on me!
19th STEP
O my Jesus! By the bitterness You experienced when the gall and vinegar touched Your lips, have mercy on me!
20th STEP
0 my Jesus! By the agony You endured, when Your garments were roughly torn from Your body, have mercy on me!
21st STEP
0 my Jesus! By the pain You suffered, when fastened with nails to the Cross of Calvary, have mercy on me!
22nd STEP
O my Jesus! By the love that moved You to forgive Your executioners and pray for them to Your Heavenly Father, have mercy on me!
23rd STEP
O my Jesus! By the goodness with which You gave paradise to the repentant thief; and Your Mother Mary to the beloved apostle John as his mother, have mercy on me!
24th STEP
O my Jesus! By the burning thirst by which you were tortured on the Cross, have mercy on me!
25th STEP
O my Jesus! By the torment You suffered on hearing the abuses hurled at You from those beneath Your Cross and on feeling Yourself abandoned by all, have mercy on me!
26th STEP
O my Jesus! By the great love for me with which Your Divine heart was inflamed on breathing forth Your last breath, have mercy on me!
27th STEP
O my Jesus! By the boundless kindness You showed by permitting Your side to be opened with a spear, have mercy on me!
28th STEP
O my Jesus! By the tender condescension, with which You permitted Your most Sacred Body to be placed in the arms of Your Mother Mary and afterwards in the sepulcher, have mercy on me!
AT THE FOOT OF THE ALTAR
We adore You, Most Holy Lord Jesus Christ, here and in all the Churches throughout the world, because by Your Holy Cross You have redeemed the world.
PRAYER BEFORE THE CRUCIFIX
Look down upon me, good and gentle Jesus while before your face I humbly kneel and with burning soul pray and beseech you to impress upon my heart lively sentiments of faith, hope and charity, true repentance for my sins and a firm purpose of amendment; while I contemplate, with great love and tender pity, your five wounds, pondering over them within me, and calling to mind the words which David, your prophet, said of you my Jesus: "They have pierced my hands and my feet. They have numbered all my bones." Amen.
PRAYER OF ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope; Where there is darkness, light; and Where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
PRAYER IN TIME OF NEED
Heavenly Father, in my present need, help me to believe that you are aware of my anxiety and will do what is best for me. Give me the strength to trust you and put the present and future in your hands. Grant this through Christ, our Lord. Amen. |
