Our ace writer, Col Augustine Ansu, (Rtd), delivers a gripping, poetic reflection on Jesus Christ’s fateful journey to the Cross of Calvary.
✠ Prologue ✠
Attend, O souls, this tragic sacred stage,
Where Love divine in mortal flesh is tried;
Here Justice weeps, and Mercy turns the page,
As God Himself is scourged, condemned, and died.
Come tread with Christ this मार्ग of grief and grace,
Where thorn and timber crown the King of Kings;
And in His fall, behold the human race
Redeemed by wounds whence endless mercy springs.
✠ The First Station: Jesus is Condemned to Death ✠
Before the judge, though innocence be clear,
The voice of truth is drowned by clamorous cries;
Thus Heaven’s King, by mortal frailty here,
Is doomed beneath unjust and darkened skies.
✠ The Second Station: Jesus Bears His Cross ✠
Behold Him take the burden not His own,
A weight of sin no mortal frame could claim;
The wood of death becomes redemption’s throne,
And suffering writes salvation in His name.
✠ The Third Station: Jesus Falls the First Time ✠
O crushing load! O flesh by anguish torn!
He stumbles ‘neath the yoke of human sin;
Yet from this fall, new hope for all is born,
For grace arises where despair hath been.
✠ The Fourth Station: Jesus Meets His Mother ✠
What sorrow pierceth Mary’s tender gaze,
To see her Son thus marred, yet meekly still;
No word is spoke, yet love profound conveys
A silent strength that bends to Heaven’s will.
✠ The Fifth Station: Simon Helps Carry the Cross ✠
Compelled at first, yet grace doth soon impart
A share in burden borne by Christ alone;
For he who lifts the Cross with willing heart
Shall find the path to glory thus made known.
✠ The Sixth Station: Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus ✠
A gentle hand amidst the raging throng,
Compassion’s act upon His visage pressed;
And there impressed, eternal love made strong,
His sacred image on her cloth finds rest.
✠ The Seventh Station: Jesus Falls the Second Time ✠
Again He falls, the weight yet heavier grows,
As sins repeated press upon His frame;
Yet still He rises, steadfast ‘midst His woes,
To finish all for love of humankind’s name.
✠ The Eighth Station: Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem ✠
“weep not for me,” the sorrowed Saviour pleads,
“But for yourselves, and hearts that turn away;
For barren souls bear far more grievous seeds
Than tears that fall upon this woeful day.”
✠ The Ninth Station: Jesus Falls the Third Time ✠
Thrice fallen now, yet not in spirit slain,
He gathers strength no earthly source bestows;
Thus broken flesh reveals a power arcane—
That perfect love through deepest weakness grows.
✠ The Tenth Station: Jesus is Stripped of His Garments ✠
Laid bare, exposed to mockery and shame,
The King of Glory stands in frailty shown;
Yet in this loss, He clothes our souls from blame,
And claims our naked hearts to be His own.
✠ The Eleventh Station: Jesus is Nailed to the Cross ✠
O cruel embrace of iron, wood, and pain!
Each hammer’s toll resounds through time and space;
Yet from these wounds flows mercy’s boundless rain,
A covenant sealed for all the fallen race.
✠ The Twelfth Station: Jesus Dies on the Cross ✠
“It is fulfilled”—the sacred uttered breath;
The veil is torn, the earth in trembling cries;
Thus Life divine submits itself to death,
That man through Him might unto glory rise.
✠ The Thirteenth Station: Jesus is Taken Down from the Cross ✠
Now rests He still in sorrowed mother’s arms,
The Lamb once slain, now silent, pale, and cold;
Yet in this grief lies healing’s mystic charms,
A love no grave nor darkness e’er can hold.
✠ The Fourteenth Station: Jesus is Laid in the Tomb ✠
Within the tomb, the Light of worlds is laid,
The stone is sealed, as hope seems veiled in night;
Yet faith perceives beyond this shadowed shade—
The dawn that breaks with Resurrection’s light.
✠ Epilogue And Benediction ✠
So ends the path, yet not the sacred tale,
For death itself shall yield to Love’s decree;
Stand firm, O souls, though trials fierce assail—
The Cross precedes the crown of victory.
May Christ, who trod this გზა of grief for thee,
Grant strength in trial, and faith that shall not cease;
Till, from life’s cross, thy soul at last go free
Into His everlasting light and peace.
Amen
