“My Way of the Cross”

Reprint of a previous NHA Blog Post: 

As we are in the middle of the Lenten Season,  St. Simeon Skete/Nazareth House Apostolate shares with you this journal writing of Seraphim's:  “My Way of the Cross”.   

I see you Jesus, I walk with you Jesus...

The Nails of the Cross.  Placed in the Chapel at St. Simeon Skete during Lenten Season.

“My Way of the Cross”  (Written by Seraphim, 5 April 2005, Louisville, KY.)

     Dropped in St. Martin de Tours Church to say my Rosary and found a group already praying so Im joining them.  Its been a strange journey today.   The bus driver was out of sorts and her spirit was throughout the bus.  Her job, her cross, and it hurts. Just now a man with Downs Syndrome in his 60’s left his pew after the Rosary finished.  He was carrying a bundle of well used devotional booklets and a prayer book bound together with rubber bands.  I could tell, sense, that a life time of devotion had just passed, a Simon of Cyrene, bearing His cross by bearing his.  Could this be another station in which the Lord is developing, “my personal way of the cross?”  Perhaps in all likelihood these stations are going on all the time and it is still Jesus, we’re passing and it is He that is passing us by in His way, His “personal Way of the Cross”. 

The Crown of Thorns, The Scourging.  Placed in the Chapel at St. Simeon Skete during Lent.

     I boarded the bus again and at the next stop a woman and her daughter got on.  She had been beaten by life; her ratted, worn polyester stretch-pants over a body long worn and pushed out of shape, her teeth missing on a face  that looked as if it had been beaten in from time to time.  And her daughter?  She was a teen, concerned about her looks as most naturally are. She had on trendy “gym shoes” and dressed nicely, a covering not only for her body, but also for what she didn’t want others to know.  When they boarded the bus the mother paid the fare for both of them.  The daughter went to the back of the bus while the mother sat at the front.  I could almost hear the thought of the daughter, “I hope no one thinks I’m with her”.  I watched the mother for response - none -  she sat with dignity, not energizing the stares and ignorance of her daughter. When the stop came for them to de-board the bus, the mother inconspicuously looked to the back to catch her daughter’s eye and gave a nod, she de-boarded from the back and the mother from the front of the bus.  I thought as the stops came and went, this mother who, as it were, had holes in her hands, feet and side, her face as if someone had struck her repeatedly and she was stooped as she walked, as if someone had beaten her back. Her loved one fleeing lest someone might associate her with this embarrassment.  The mother showed no sign of hurt over this, no resignation, as if at one time there was hope, expectation that she would be accepted, loved and not an embarrassment to others. Things were just as they were, nothing was to change, or for that matter, was able to change.  Again, could this be another station, another “bus stop” of the cross? ...my own stations of the cross that God, the Holy Spirit was bringing to me?  As I thought on these things I heard three beeps of a car horn that strangely sounded like a cock crowing.

As you walk through your own life be aware that Christ continues to carry his cross in others. 

The remaining ashes of Ash Wednesday are enthroned in the Chapel of St. Simeon Skete during the Lenten Season.

...and he went a little further...

From the Sixth Hour to the Ninth Hour

"Now from the sixth hour there was darkness 

over all the land 

unto the ninth hour". Matthew 27:45

Today prior to noon, at St. Simeon Skete, we will walk and pray the first 11 Stations of the Cross.  

At noon, the time that Jesus is lifted up on the Cross we will remain in silence until 3 PM when we then complete the remaining Stations of the Cross.  

And when the sixth hour was come, 

there was darkness over the whole land 

until the ninth hour. Mark 15:33-34

The Stations are done this way every Friday at the Skete, not only during the Lenten Season but all year.  

We do this devotion a bit different than the standard way said at a church.  For us, it is called "The State of The Cross" rather than the Stations of the Cross. 

The word "state" is used rather than Station because every step, action and word as well as everything felt and done by those who took part in this tragic reality, continues to be present in its Stations. 

The Scriptures: "The son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day. And He said to them all, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. for whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it." Luke 9:22-24

In encountering the Cross, people throughout the ages have always been confronted by the choice either of becoming Christ's followers or his executioners. 

"So from that day on they planned to put Him to death." John 11:53 

 It is a practice of the skete to continually study - a daily ongoing study - the Way of the Cross.    As we begin the weekly "State of the Cross" we invoke the help of the Holy Spirit.  Certain Greeks said to the Apostle Philip, "we would see Jesus" (John 12:21) and it is this prayer that we address to the Holy Spirit: 

 "Holy Spirit, I would see Jesus"

Then it is said:

I see you, Jesus...

you go it alone:

you drink the cup:

you are condemned to death:

you take up your cross:

you fall for the first time:

you meet your mother:

Simon carries your cross:

Veronica wipes your face:

you fall, the second time:

the women weep for you:

you fall, for the third time:

you are stripped:

your are nailed to the cross:

you die:

you are taken down from the cross:

you are placed in the tomb. 

I see you, Jesus

I walk with you Jesus

The Intro to each Station:

In the State of the Cross, I offer myself to the "insert first, second - whichever station you are on" Station of: "describe the action such as Meeting your Mother, etc" 

Before each Station: 

V. I see the O Lord Jesus, and I am saved

R. Because by the Holy Cross thou has redeemed the world. 

At this time a meditation can be read and then 

After each Station:

Eleven Jesus Prayers

"And He went a little further" Matthew 26:39

Stabat Mater 

At the Closing: (the following are said)

The Offering 

The Poorer Means

"I go in the Name of the Lord, IAM sends me as a chosen vessel to bear His Name and you shall call His Name, Jesus" 

Since we say The Stations every Friday and our practice is the ongoing study of the Way of the Cross,  as we stand before each station what we have studied, what we have internalized, the versions we have read over the years come forth as we say the eleven Jesus Prayers.  

And it was about the sixth hour, 

and there was a darkness 

over all the earth 

until the ninth hour. Luke:23:44

We use different versions of the stations, most recently a wonderful Way of the Cross written by the author,  Susan Prudhomme.  We've worked through it this Lent and now it is part of rumination of the collective stations we've taken into our hearts and recollect as we pray the Jesus Prayers at each Station. 

For further reading on the Stations of the Cross we recommend the following links: 

MY WAY OF THE CROSS (click here)

Sierra Leone Way of the Cross (click here)