A Beautiful New Resource: Vatican Releases Text For Way Of The Cross Written By Young People

The texts of the meditations on the fourteen stations of the Via Crucis rite of this year were written by fifteen young people, aged between 16 and 27 years. Therefore, there are two main innovations: the first has no evidence of past editions and concerns the age of authors, young people and adolescents (nine of them are students of the Rome high school Pilo Albertelli); the second consists of the “choral” dimension of this work, a symphony of many voices with different tones and tones. There are no “young people”, but Valerio, Maria, Margherita, Francesco, Chiara, Greta …

With the enthusiasm typical of their age they accepted the challenge that was proposed by the Pope within this year 2018, dedicated in general to the younger generation. They did it with a precise operating method. They gathered around a table and read the texts of the Passion of Christ according to the four Gospels. They therefore set themselves before the scene of the Via Crucis and “saw” it. After reading, respecting the necessary time, each of the boys expressed himself by saying which particular of the scene had struck him. And so it was easier and more natural to assign the individual stations.

Three key words, three verbs, mark the development of these texts: first of all, as already mentioned, see , then meet, and finally pray.

To see the world, when you are young you want to see, see the world. The scene of Good Friday is powerful, even in its atrocity: seeing it can lead to repulsion or mercy and, therefore, to meet. Just as Jesus does in the Gospel, every day, even this day, the last. He meets Pilate, Herod, the priests, the guards, his mother, the Cyrenian, the women of Jerusalem, the two thieves his last companions on the street. When you are young every day you have the opportunity to meet someone, and each meeting is new, surprising. We grow old when we no longer want to see anyone, when the fear that closes wins over confident openness: fear of change, because to meet means to change, to be ready to get back on the road with new eyes. Finally, seeing and meeting leads us to pray for the sight and the encounter to generate mercy, even in a world that seems devoid of pity and on a day like this, abandoned to senseless wrath, to the cowardice and to the distracted laziness of men . But if we follow Jesus with our heart, even through the mysterious journey of the Cross. Then courage and trust can be reborn and, after seeing and having opened up to the encounter, we will experience the grace of praying, no longer alone, but together.

An excerpt, from the fifth station:

From the Gospel according to Luke ( Lk 23, 26)

As they led him away, they stopped a certain Simon of Cyrene, who came back from the fields, and put the cross on him, to be carried after Jesus .

I see you, Jesus, crushed under the weight of the cross. I see you can not do it alone; just at the moment of the greatest effort, you remained alone, there are not those who said your friends: Judas betrayed you, Peter denied you, the others abandoned. But here is a sudden encounter, a man, an ordinary man, who perhaps you had heard of, yet he had not followed you, but now he is here, by your side, shoulder to shoulder, sharing your yoke. His name is Simone and he is a foreigner who comes from far away, from Cyrene. For him, today, an unexpected event that turns out to be an encounter.

There are countless meetings and clashes that we live every day, especially we children who constantly come into contact with new realities, new people. And it is in the unexpected encounter, in the accident, in the unsettling surprise that the opportunity to love is hidden, to recognize the best in others, even when it seems different.

Sometimes we feel like you, Jesus, abandoned by those we believed to be our friends, under a weight that crushes us.But we must not forget that there is a Simon of Cyrene ready to take our cross. We must not forget that we are not alone, and from this awareness we can draw the strength to take charge of the cross of whom we have next.

I see you, Jesus: now you seem to feel a bit ‘of relief, you can breathe for a moment, now that you are not alone anymore. And I see Simone: who knows if he has experienced that your yoke is light, who knows if he realizes what this unexpected event means in his life.

Lord, I pray you so that each of us
can find the courage to be like the Cyrenian,
who takes the cross and follows your steps.
Each of us is so humble and strong
that we load the cross of whom we meet.
Grant that when we feel alone,
we can recognize in our path a Simon of Cyrene
who stops and loads our burden.
Donate us to know how to look for the best in each person,
to be open to every encounter, even in diversity.
Please, so that each of us
can unexpectedly find out by your side.

Pater Noster…