Way of the Cross Opening Prayer

I have always loved the Stations of the Cross, a devotion wherin we meditate upon the 14 scenes from the Condemnation of Jesus to His burial. This year, I got the Way of the Cross devotional by Fulton Sheen. And I LOVE it. I may share some of the prayers or meditations from it from time to time. This is the opening prayer.


O Lord Jesus,

the curtain is now about to go up

on the awful and abiding drama

of your redemptive love.

And as I hear your words,

"Take up your cross daily and follow me,"

I stand affrightened, lest its burden

be too great and its shame too bitter.

If I could but see that your command

to follow you to Calvary

was not just an iron law of cruel fate,

but a condition of everlasting happiness,

perhaps I could better make the jouney.

But I fear, dear Jesus, that in having You

I must have nothing else besides.

Let my fear be dispelled

in seeing death as the condition of life.

for through your apostle Paul,

you have told us that it is the joy at the end

of the journey that makes us endure my cross.

I shall, then, take up my cross.

O Jesus, why must we love you so!

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