What Station of the Cross do you connect with the most at this point in your life? Is it the 1st station, when Jesus is condemned? Is it the 2nd station, when he carries his cross? Is the 3rd station, when he falls the 1st time? Are you being condemned at work? Is there a struggle at home or with your family that you have been carrying for a while now? Have you been falling into sin and don’t have the energy to get back up? Throughout our lives we enter into these situations. Sometimes we forget that Jesus had these experiences too. He experienced everything but sin. This is why it is so important to pray the Stations of the Cross during Lent and throughout the year. We remember what Jesus went through and how he kept moving forward! With his help, we can keep going, we can get through any struggle or failure in life. Thank you Lord!
As we enter into the holiest week of the year, please check out the ways you can pray and reflect on the life of Christ during this time. In regard to praying the Stations of the Cross during Holy Week, please note that the school is offering the Living Stations on Wednesday at 6:30pm. On Good Friday, the Stations of the Cross will be offered at 12:00pm.
Looking for help: As you may have noticed when you drive by our church, the Stations of the Cross on our campus have been partially removed. We are in the progress of restoring and relocating our Stations of the Cross to a location behind the Memorare Center. There will be landscape lighting for each station, which will be aesthetically pleasing for our campus. Our facilities manager, Dennis Ott, will sandblast each station to remove the paint. They will then be primed and ready to paint. This is where I need your help. I am looking for 14 artists who would be able to devote their time to restoratively, prayerfully paint these stations together. Please email me at frmerzweiler@stfparish.com for further info. Thank you ahead of time for the good work you will do to make our stations beautiful again! As you can see, I took a picture of one of our stations that will be restored. Take a moment and pray with it. Like these stations which are greatly in need of restoration, we too look forward to the day when we will all be restored in Christ! To close, I want to share the closing prayer from the 3rd Station of the Cross:
O God, to free us from sin and weakness your Son, Jesus Christ, embraced his fearful passion and crucifixion. Strengthen us in our baptismal resolutions by which we renounced sin and Satan, so that through the passion of this life’s sufferings we might rise to a new life of joyful service free of all selfishness. Amen.
May God’s peace and joy be with you,
Fr. Jeremy
