The Holy Face in the Way of the Cross XI-Jesus is nailed to the cross

(The eleventh in a series of posts praying the Stations of the Cross...begin here and then follow along each day.)

There is a calm expectance on the Face of Jesus upturned upon the wood of the Cross.  He is waiting for the iron nails of man's ingratitude to confirm for all time the limitations of man's comprehension of God and the limitlessness of God's comprehension of man.  Only God-or the God-sustained-could bear with a prayer of forgiveness the torture of the nails.

Jesus, remembering your great pain, the Precious Blood pouring from Your hands and feet, let me be patient with all men, even with myself; let me be confident of the adequacy of Your redemption, and use that confidence not as a license for sinful indulgence but as an inspiration to more God-like living.

Blessed Mother, the hammer-blows on Calvary beat upon your heart; let me hear them, too.


(From The Holy Face in the Way of the Cross with etchings by Hippolyte Lazerges and reflections by  Father Page, C.S.C. aka Fr. Gerald Fitzgerald, sP, the founder of the Handmaids of the Precious Blood, published by the St. Columban's Fathers Foreign Mission Society)