"To preserve his health in view of tomorrow's Vigil and the Holy Mass on Easter Sunday, this evening Pope Francis will follow the Via Crucis at the Colosseum from Casa Santa Marta". This was communicated by the Vatican Press Office.
Pope Francis, pushed in a wheelchair, entered St. Peter's Basilica where, on the occasion of Good Friday, he presided over the celebration of the Passion of the Lord.
During the Liturgy of the Word the story of the Passion according to John was read; then the preacher of the Papal Household, card. Raniero Cantalamessa gave the homily. The Liturgy of the Passion continues with the Universal Prayer and the adoration of the Cross and concludes with Communion.
The Pope thinks of the women who accompanied Christ on the Via Crucis and underlines, in the meditations,
that "their prayer made of tears reaches your heart".
Then Pope Francis asks: "And can my prayer cry?", "Faced with the tragedies of the world, is my heart frozen or does it melt? How do I react to the madness of war, to the faces of children who no longer know how to smile, to mothers who see them malnourished and hungry and have no more tears to shed?".
The Pope therefore asks God in the prayer of the Via Crucis, which will be held this evening at the Colosseum: "Shake me inside, give me the grace to cry while praying and to pray while crying".
A
prayer for those who are
offended on social media
among the meditations on the Via Crucis written by the Pope. "Jesus, many follow the barbaric spectacle of your execution and, without knowing you and without knowing the truth, they pass judgment and condemnation, casting infamy upon you and contempt. It also happens today, Lord, and you don't even need a macabre procession: a keyboard is enough to insult and publish sentences", underlines Pope Francis.
In the sixth station ("Jesus receives comfort from Veronica who wipes his face") the Pope recalls that "while many scream and judge, a woman makes her way through the crowd. She doesn't speak: she acts. She doesn't rant: she takes pity.
She goes against the grain: alone, with the courage of compassion, she risks for love
, she finds a way to pass among the soldiers just to give you the comfort of a caress on your face. Her gesture will go down in history and is a gesture of consolation."
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It is also possible today to see Jesus crucified "in the
Christs humiliated by arrogance and injustice
, by unfair gains made at the expense of others in general indifference". The Pontiff says it in the meditations of the Via Crucis this evening at the Colosseum. "Now I understand your insistence on identifying with the needy: you have been imprisoned; you, a stranger, led out of the city to be crucified; you are naked, stripped of your clothes; you, sick and wounded; you, thirsty on the cross and hungry for 'love. Let me see you in the suffering and see the suffering in you, because you are there, in those who are stripped of dignity", is the Pope's prayer.
Also look at the women at the Via Crucis
which will be held this evening at the Colosseum with Pope Francis. The women at Calvary "have no voice but they make themselves heard. Help us to recognize the greatness of women, they who at Easter were faithful and close to you, but who are still discarded today, suffering outrage and violence", underlines the Pontiff in meditations. "Jesus, the women you meet beat their breasts and lament over you. They don't cry over themselves, but they cry for you, they cry over the evil and sin of the world", is the prayer of Pope Francis at the eighth station (" Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem").
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