We Meet Jesus’ Mother
JJesus’ mother, Mary, was familiar with ridicule and rejection. Today Mary remains ever accessible to anyone who implores her help.  As Mary meets Jesus on the way to Calvary, may she teach us how to accept our own pain with surrender. As Mary stands beneath the cross, may we learn to be present to the suffering ones of our world. As Mary received her crucified Son in her arms, may she teach us how to embrace our losses with courage. Mary, we draw inspiration from your life of faith. Mary, full of grace, pray for us.                                                                                                
-Adapted from an anonymous prayer

We Help Each Other When We Come Together
The Lord God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it. - Gen 2:15

We all have an earthly destiny to lift each other’s crosses. In Laudato Si’, Pope Francis tells us that climate is a common good belonging to all and meant for all. He reminds us that it is the poor who are most affected by climate change and he encourages policies that reduce our dependence on fossil fuels that are primarily responsible for climate change. We, who have thrived on a society and economy built on fossil fuels, must now lift the crosses of eroding coastlines, extreme droughts and crop failures, heat waves, massive forest fires and increasing hurricanes. “The Lord God then took the man and settled him in a garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it” (Gen 2:15). In many ways we have abused the garden and now all of humanity struggles under the cross of climate change.

                                                                                                -St. John’s Parish Creation Care Team

The Faces of the Lakota Sioux
In sharing the journey of life, travel with the humble person on the quiet path. - Lakota proverb

Consider the challenges the Lakota Sioux continue to face: The Massacre at Wounded Knee, broken promises, the ravages of alcoholism, unemployment and the fury of Mother Nature on the Dakota plains. Today we see in their faces great love, strength and dignity. They live by the belief that generous support for each other makes them better people and helps them build community harmony. With emphasis on ideals such as generosity, cooperation and strength, they have formed a kinship of the people. You see this in the respect shown to tribal elders and the communal protection of children.
As Veronica looked into the eyes of Jesus, we too are being invited by the Lakota Sioux to walk with them on our shared journey. Consider the challenges they have faced and continue to face:
-Larry and Marjorie Brennan, St. John’s Parish Partners

Falling Under the Weight of Crosses Unseen
Now in our midst is Jesus in the thousands who fall about us under the crushing weight of CROSSES NOT VISIBLE: paralyzing anxiety; immobilizing depression; emptiness forged by consistent invalidation, dreams collapsed; trust betrayed; enslavement to alcohol, drugs prescribed and abused; evaporating memory. The momentum and urgency of the procession frequently miscarry us into convenient, dismissive rationalizations: laziness, entitlement, irresponsibility… ‘Surely everyone needs to bear his own weight like the rest of us?’  May we be the presence of Jesus to those who have fallen by the weight of invisible crosses: extending a hand to lift and support, listening with a compassionate heart and offering a place of welcome within the community.

                                          -Nick Battafarano, St. John’s Parishioner

Who Consoles the Women of Today?
Women were always with you, Jesus, from Mary’s “Yes” that brought you into the world, through your formation and into your adulthood.  Your wide, inclusive embrace drew women alongside you in ministry.  At the end of your life, women followed in your footsteps to the place of execution and stood in courageous witness beneath the cross.  Women, in their grief, prepared the spices for your burial.  On the Third Day, it was Mary Magdalene whom you sent to tell the disbelieving apostles of your wondrous resurrection.  Women like Phoebe, Prisca and Lydia would continue your ministry as the Good News of your resurrection took root. These many centuries later, your wide, inclusive embrace of women seems forgotten.  The work of women is not recognized or rewarded as equal.  Women struggle to be believed when they share their testimony or speak their truth. The prophetic voice of courageous women is dismissed and too often silenced. We weep for ourselves and for our children for we are all diminished as a result.

                               -Christine Basque Malloy, St. John’s Parishioner

Approaching Execution
My name is Carey Dean Moore. I was executed in Nebraska on August 14, 2018. I murdered two innocent people and spent nearly 40 years on Death Row, where I died. While in prison, I fell in love with Jesus and He gifted me with unending graces; contrition, enduring my penance and a love for all who live on our blessed earth. My life was a mystery to me while I was alive. Now, Heaven is unending joy; beyond description.
May we follow the Cross and know you are loved every moment of your life.
-Jo Donegan, St. John’s Parishioner and Carey Dean Moore’s spiritual director

Stripped of Dignity
We have reduced the suffering of Jesus to pretty gold settings with a corpus bearing a loincloth to cover his “humanity.” Many pimps and people engaged in trafficking victims wear this kind of jewelry without even thinking of the implications of how they actually contradict themselves by their very actions. Reducing the human person to nothingness, stripped of dignity and faced with broken lives, leaves only one hope – liberation. Jesus’ nakedness on the cross needs to be fully embraced if we are to begin to understand the dehumanization of the modern day slavery of human trafficking.

 We look at the cross and make a choice. We can walk away from it because it’s just too painful to look at, or we can see it for all its broken humanity.

        -Gareden of Dremas, a Via Crucis on Human Trafficking: Robert Juarez

Crucifixion Meditation
“Christ crucified, a stumbling block to many.” Me, too, Lord. I’m one of the many. I cannot stand to look at You or anyone persecuted. My fear of pain, my fear of death, keep me from You, keep me from them. I keep my distance from You, from your pain and death. I walk blindly and weakly, wanting to be one of your disciples. I come to Calvary, to the Savior I know.  

Open my eyes that they may fix their gaze on You even when You are suffering and dying…dying to show me and the many that You really do love us. Pain, suffering and even death, itself, are not the end, are not the last word. Love is. Your Word is the last World.                                                                           -Joyce V. Glenn

Jesus Dies on the Cross
Pause for one minute of silence.

Were You There?
It is finished. It is over. Jesus is gone now, yet his body hangs there lifeless on the wood. Numb, his family and friends gather to gently take Him down, to get him away from the shame and from the mocking crowd. His mother waits, crying, with arms open to receive her son, her battered, broken and dead son.

 Song: Instrumental “Were you there when they crucified our Lord”– We pray in our hearts with familiar words....
- African American Spiritual

Faith and Hope Remain
Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. - Heb 11:1

Among our acquaintances, who is willing to be there for others – for the long haul – like Joseph of Arimathea and the group of women who accompanied Jesus to Calvary? Who is sustained by faith and hope in spite of the cross they bear? The spouse, who is losing the love of her life to Alzheimer’s disease, willingly adapts to the daily responsibilities of care-giver, deeply misses the depth of relationship she and her spouse shared as a married couple. The grandparent, who assumes guardianship of grandchildren, provides consistency of routine; has energy to offer one more “I love you” at the end of very long days.

 Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, what God has ready for those who love. Spirit of love, come, give us the mind of Jesus, teach us the wisdom of God. (I Cor. 2:9)

                                 - Sister Beth Driscoll, St. John’s Parishioner

Traditionally there were fourteen stations. During his papacy, which began in 1978, Pope John Paul II encouraged Catholics to add a fifteenth Station, the Resurrection of Christ, which is now included in many Catholic churches.

The Fifteenth Station: Jesus is raised from the dead

Jesus lives now. This One who would not stay dead continues to live and promises us that one day He will return and come for us. He is alive. He lives. This we believe!

We are the Church, the Body of Christ, a community of believers, struggling with sin, yet confident that Love conquers all. We are the remnant whose time and turn has come to bear witness to the power of Resurrection. God is at work in us. May we remain faithful and steadfast companions on the journey to love and serve the world.                                                                                         
-Adapted from Joyce V. Glenn