THE FIRST STATION OF THE CROSS
Jesus Is Condemned to Death

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L:  We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
     (Bow)
All:  By your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

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L:  When morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people conferred together against Jesus in order to bring about his death.  They bound him, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate the governor.  Pilate said to them, "Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?" All of them said, "Let him be crucified!"  So when Pilate saw that he could do nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took some water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, "I am innocent of this man's blood; see to it yourselves."  After flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified.
(Matthew 27:1-2,22,24,26b)

(Kneel/sit and pause for reflection)

L:  By a perversion of justice :

All:  He was taken away. Who could have imagined his future? For he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people. They made his grave with the wicked and his tomb with the rich, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him with pain.    (Isaiah 53:8-10a)

L:  Let us pray.  Almighty God, your Son was rejected and condemned to die by your own people.  Grant that we may never reject his word of truth and salvation, but follow him all our days;  through Jesus Christ our Lord.

All:  Amen

(Stand and move to the next station, singing:)

          Now the cross as Jesus bore it,
          Has become for us who share it,
          The great cross of victory.

On to THE SECOND STATION
Jesus Carries His Cross...

The Stations Of The Cross: . .

OPENING PRAYER
Before the Altar

THE FIRST STATION
Jesus Is Condemned to Death

THE SECOND STATION
Jesus Carries His Cross

THE THIRD STATION
Jesus Falls the First Time

THE FOURTH STATION
Jesus Meets His Afflicted Mother

THE FIFTH STATION
Simon Helps Jesus Carry His Cross

THE SIXTH STATION
A Woman Offers Comfort to Jesus

THE SEVENTH STATION
Jesus Falls a Second Time

THE EIGHTH STATION
Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem

THE NINTH STATION
Jesus Falls a Third Time

THE TENTH STATION
Jesus Is Stripped of His Clothes

THE ELEVENTH STATION
Jesus Is Nailed to the Cross

THE TWELFTH STATION
Jesus Dies on the Cross

THE THIRTEENTH STATION
Jesus Is Taken Down from the Cross

THE FOURTEENTH STATION
Jesus Is Laid in the Tomb

Closing Prayer
Before the Altar