Sesta Stazione: Gesù è asciugato dalla Veronica
The Adoration of the Cross
The faithful begin the station by acknowledging the redemptive power of Christ's sacrifice.
We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you, because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.✦
The Holy Face and the Soul's Restoration
Reflecting on Veronica's act of mercy, the soul compares Christ's disfigured face to its own state after sin, seeking restoration through his Passion.
Consider how the holy woman Veronica, seeing Jesus so exhausted and his face wet with sweat and blood, offered him a linen cloth; and as our Lord wiped himself with it, he left his sacred image impressed upon it. My beloved Jesus, your face was beautiful before, but on this journey it no longer looks beautiful; it is wholly disfigured by wounds and blood. Alas! My soul, too, was beautiful when it received your grace in Baptism, but afterward I disfigured it with my sins. You alone, my Redeemer, can restore its former beauty: do it for the sake of your Passion.1
A Prayer of Repentance and Love
The believer concludes the station with an act of contrition and a surrender of the will to Christ.
I love you, my Jesus, more than myself; with all my heart I repent of having offended you. Forgive me, and don't allow me to separate myself from you. Grant that I may always love you, and then do with me as you please.
Read the original Latin
Ti adoriamo, o Cristo, e ti benediciamo, perché con la tua santa Croce hai redento il mondo.
Considera come la santa donna Veronica vedendo Gesù così affannato e con il volto bagnato di sudore e di sangue, gli porse un lino e asciugandosi con quello nostro Signore vi lasciò impressa la sua sacra immagine. – Diletto mio Gesù, il tuo volto prima era bello, ma in questo viaggio non appare più bello, ma tutto deformato dalle ferite e dal sangue. Ohimè! Anche l’anima mia fu bella, quando ricevette la tua grazia nel Battesimo; ma io l’ho deformata poi con i miei peccati. Tu solo, mio Redentore, puoi restituirle l’antica bellezza: fallo per la tua Passione.
Io ti amo, Gesù mio, più di me stesso, mi pento con tutto il cuore di averti offeso. Perdonami e non permettere che mi separi da te. Fa’ che sempre ti ami e poi disponi di me come ti piace.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Gal.6.14;Col.1.20;1Pet.1.18-1Pet.1.19 — But may it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Col.1.20 — and through him to reconcile all things to himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross — through him, whether things on earth or things in the heavens. 1Pet.1.18 — knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things—silver or gold—from your futile way of life handed down from your fathers, 1Pet.1.19 — but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot
Notes
- 1 ↩Italian «per la tua Passione» may mean either for the sake of the Passion or by means of the Passion; rendered as petition through the meritorious Passion.
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