The Eighth Station: Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem
Jesus Comforts the Women of Jerusalem
Scripture: There was following Jesus a great crowd of people, and among them were some women who were bewailing and lamenting Him. Jesus turning to them said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me,
but weep for yourselves and for your children (Luke 23. 27-28).”
Jesus & Thomas a’Kempis From detail of statue in St. Mary’s Basillica, Zwolle, NL
From Book 2, Ch. 12: The Royal Way of The Holy Cross.
Behold the Cross is all, and everything lies in dying to yourself; and there is no other way to life and to true inward peace, except through the Way of the Holy Cross and of daily mortification.
Go where you will, seek whatever you will, and you shall find no higher way above or safer way below, than the way of the Holy Cross.
Prayer: Beloved Lord Jesus, Remove from me all interest in worldly matters and put an end to all attachments to the flesh. Let me not find delight in others affairs, or waste time in useless chatter, but strive to concentrate on my interior life and to grieve and lament secretly over my many excesses and negligences. May I reject all that keeps me from advancing in virtue, and may I follow the path of those who keep their eyes focused on You – those who with a calm spirit know how to transcend all temporal things. Amen. (From Chapter 17 of “On the Passion of Christ According to the Four Evangelists, by Thomas a’Kempis, Ignatius Press, 2004).