St. Bride's Episcopal Church

STATIONS OF THE CROSS

We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you, because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

	Station I - Jesus is condemned to death My skin already broken and blood flows, these small wounds smart as the candles gutter. Voices continue, falling like stones into a pool, to settle unmoved at its base as if they would drag it down. I cannot move - I am held equally still, in God's hands, my feet cold on the stone - my heart beating strong - and the spell is broken: rough hands grasp me.
Almighty and everliving God, in tender love for all our human race you sent your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ to take our flesh and suffer death upon a cruel cross. May we follow the example of his great humility and share in the glory of his resurrection.
	Station II - Jesus takes up his Cross They load the weight on my shoulder, I gasp and stagger, the wall and gate loom before me - not one step can I take so laden. I am deaf now to all but my breathing and the solid crudely-hewn wood scraping my skin as I hold the beam. It crushes my shoulder and I feel my cheek rasp and bleed as I stagger again but stand.
Almighty God, whose Son was crucified yet entered into glory, may we, walking in the way of the cross, find it to be for us the way of life.
	Station III - Jesus falls for the first time It moves somehow, my soles pressed into cobbles and pebbles - the weight of my life, my words were never so heavy - back-bowed. Splinter to splinter and bloodflow staining skin. I stagger in the crowds and buckle - the long moment of hush as a knee crashes stone and breaks.
Almighty God, you sent your Son Jesus Christ to be the light of the world. Free us from all that darkens and ensnares us, and bring us to eternal light and joy.
	Station IV - Jesus meets his Mother Rough hands sieze me and I am hefted upright, groaning. Shouts near and far, and crying. I cannot see well for the blood in my eyes. My open hands grasp the block, I strain, move on - knee-pain, shoulder numb. Drag and stagger, drag and stagger, the long end of the wood clumping on stone. Seeing little, I smell a fragrance I recognise and stop, reeling. Try and open my eyes, see through the film of red to a pale blue hem and blue robe - slowly my eyes rise to see her whom I most love - my longing known. Such sorrow. We stare at each other a long moment, long-known until the lash comes down and the wood sways dangerous.
Almighty God, who looked with favour on your servant Mary, and called her to be the mother of your Son: nurture in us the humility and gentleness that found favour in your sight, that with her we may proclaim the greatness of your name and find the mercy you show to those who fear you.
	Station V - The Cross is laid on Simon of Cyrene I hear a horse, and hoarse voices disputing, out of the blue strong hands and a smell of cinnamon lighten my load - I feel strong limbs touch mine and look round to a tall bent man in white beside me bearing my wood, I breathe easier now and pressure on shoulder, and cheek, and knees, raw hands, eases. I am grateful for the little is much.
Almighty God, your Son Jesus Christ has taught us that what we do for the least of your children we do also for him. Give us the will to serve others as he was the servant of all, who gave up his life and died for us but lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
	Station VI - A woman wipes the face of Jesus The hill seems higher now and the press of the crowd hot: voices clamour and jostling follows my slow progress. Somewhere, he left me but the wood remains. Sweat deepens now, my face coarse and crimson - I long for cool water, the rustle of leaves, a pale soft breeze and the fragrance of grass. Something soft touches my face and with gentleness smoothes my skin. I open my eyes and see the face of a woman. I feel clean.
Almighty God, whose Son Jesus Christ gives the water of eternal life, may we always thirst for you, the spring of life and source of goodness.
	Station VII - Jesus falls a second time It does not last and the vision fades. I hear voices, voices, and the sun burns my head. I am dizzy now and the wood bears down on me - I stop and sway - I cannot hold it - I crash on both knees blinding flash white pain hits my eyes and I am nearly down. reeling. reeling. nearly stone.
Father of mercy, alone we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves. When we are discouraged by our weakness, strengthen us to follow Christ, our pattern and our hope.
	Station VIII - Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem The afternoon wears on me like a chain, the incline never-ending and the weight so much a part of me now I cannot feel it. I float towards them, the small group of women: a mirage of orange, blue and green, small children clutch their legs. They are weeping and their faces fear what they see. I pity them. Weep for yourselves, women, for what we all might never be. I see they cannot see and pass them slowly my way.
Almighty God, look graciously, we pray, on this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross.
	Station IX - Jesus falls a third time But now it darkens before me - the stone, the street, the people fade, and I feel myself falling, voices disappear, I crash down on my face, the fall winding me, breath shocked out of my body and the wood falls on my back pinning me to the road. My cheek is crushed to stone, I feel grit impress my skin I can barely breathe-in. The wood hauled-up, I feel it go and sun strikes my face. My back sore now. Rough hands grasp me and I stand, swaying, the light is pain and my head spinning. They lead me on for I cannot see the way, the wood walks beside me carried by four men.
Almighty and everliving God, whose Son Jesus Christ healed the sick and restored them to wholeness of life, look with compassion on the anguish of the world, and by your power make whole all peoples and nations.
	Station X - Jesus is stripped of his garments The road opens out from between the walls, runs down to green and trees and up again to a bare hill shaped like a skull. Its empty eyes stare at me. It knows I come. The air is warm among the trees as I pass, buzzing of flies is loud and somewhere in the branches birds sing, the bare road winds to the top of the rock where they strip my cloths: encumbrances in the necromancy of nails and weight-bearing, they rip the dried skin off my back as my linen is peeled.
Lord God, your Son our Saviour gave his body to be whipped and turned his face for men to spit upon. Give your servants grace to accept suffering for his sake, confident of the glory that will be revealed.
	Station XI - Jesus is nailed to the Cross They lay me on my back horizontal, glad to be still, the rope tight at ankle and wrists - it creaks as they torque it. I squint from the sun, stare up at the stretching blue - a cloudless sky. I watch a bird wheel by lazily, ignoring us. Then the first is driven in, flinted sparks and ringing, I contort pain and cry out. Again. Again. Again. I am twisted undone I feel bones give way begin unpiece they cannot take such strain. And I taste the air as I am swung upright - the awful leer and thud as the base thumps in.
God of patience and humility, in your love you gave your Son to be rejected and raised up on a cross. Gather us under its shadow and open our eyes to its mystery, that we may share even now in the life that is from above.
	Station XII - Jesus dies on the Cross I cannot breathe I cannot breathe I move pain move pain the blue is blurred, bird gone, the crowds silent now, the women weeping quietly in twos and threes. My mother's face, my friends. I buckle and rend, dizzy my blood is leaking, leaking away, I weaken. Speak softly and can only give, give away what I most treasure. Light fades. I am stabbed by knives and a deep regret. Where is my God? I feel myself begin to sink through deep water deep blue water bearing me and the glimmering light beams slowly disappear.
O God, by the passion of your blessed Son you made an instrument of shameful death to be for us the means of life. May our lives be so transformed by his passion that we may witness to his grace.
	Station XIII - The body of Jesus is taken from the Cross Clouds came in to darken the sky. Silence stretched out over the hill and our heads hung lifeless, blood still glistening on the wood. Eventually the soldiers let them take us down and I felt my body unpinned with no pain, and they wrapped me gently in clean linen and free of the wood they bore me fragile through the trees. I saw nothing but felt the touch of many hands.
Living God, in Christ you make all things new. Transform the poverty of our nature by the riches of your grace, and in the renewal of our lives make known your glory.
	Station XIV - Jesus is laid in the tomb I was laid on the ground but I felt no stones in my back. I smelt thyme and juniper, I heard birds singing and flitting through leaves. There were words and grunts, the scraping of a heavy stone and then a cool place with damp air, quiet voices echoing softly - a small cavern hewn in the hill - I knew it well. They laid me on a stone table and I felt my body straighten my limbs begin to rest, hands quietly crossed I was blessed and left. The stone was grinding and it scraped as it rolled and the silence and the silence alone.
Almighty God, your Son came into the world to free us all from sin and death. Breathe upon us with the power of your Spirit, that we may be raised to new life in Christ and serve you in holiness and righteousness all our days.
	Station XV - Jesus rises from the dead But I was not done and they came for me in the early morning, bringing a draught of cold air and green waking me from my dream and I was lifted out of there as if I had never been.
Lord of life and power, through the mighty resurrection of your Son you have overcome the old order of sin and death and have made all things new in him. May we, being dead to sin and alive to you in Jesus Christ, reign with him in glory, who with you and the Holy Spirit is alive, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Holy God, Holy and Strong, Holy and Immortal, Have mercy on us.

These carved Stations of the Cross hang within St Bride's. Traditionally there are 14 Stations, there was the addition of a 15th Station - the Resurrection of Jesus - circa 1960, as theologians held that the resurrection completed the cycle.

The photograph for the Fifteenth Station is of the (probably) mid-8th century cross at Kilnave Chapel on Islay. Photographs by Stuart Purdie.

Poem via crucis by Suzanne Scott.