"Passion of the Christ"
Book of Photography

"Encountering the Stations of the Cross
through the Vocation of Motherhood"

Anawim
Hebrew for the' Poorest of the Poor'.
Reflection written by Sharon Marie Willoughby

I. Jesus is Condemned to die

We adore You, O Christ, and we praise you,

Because by Your Holy Cross, You have redeemed the world.

The Way of the Cross before my eyes.

Where a gentle Man is condemned to die.

Have I been put to blame in my life.

Have I judged another without love in sight.

Mother Mary,

How does a mother arrive at such a station in life?

Here I am with you, the perfect mother with the perfect Son,

who is also your King and Savior!

You waited all your young life, joining your people in prayer that

the Messiah would come.

Maybe you were even hoping that you would be able to serve

the mother of the Messiah, should He come in your time.

You were to soon learn by Gabriel that at the moment of your existence,

the cries of your people would finally be heard.

You were the daughter of your people called to grow into the mother of your Savior.

As mother, you have loved Him all His life

with the perfection that began at your own Conception.

Time has waited for us to be here with you at this station of Condemnation.

Mary, Mirror of Justice, pray for us.

Help us to pray for the grace of self-knowledge so that we may be free to serve

as mothers who pray through rash judgments with expressions of tender love.

Teach us how to love, even when hate is all that we may encounter.

Help us to grow into mothers of unconditional presence.

In times of judgment, teach us to pray.

In times of rash judgment, how is the Lord calling me to respond?

II Jesus Carries His Cross

We adore You, O Christ, and we praise you…

As He carries the Cross, how weak He seems.

And where do I turn to find strength in my need?

No more shall one carry a cross alone.

He lightens the weight as He dwells in my soul.

Mother Mary,

How does a mother watch her child lift the object of His execution?

How does the mother of a carpenter watch her son be grafted to this wood?

His agony and brutal countenance seem to torture my eyes

as the wood comes into view.

In those hidden years with you,

was He preparing you both for this moment in ways of persevering acceptance?

Mother Most Faithful, pray for us.

Help us to accept God’s will that is made known to us by the crosses He sends us.

Pray for us, that as mothers, we may persevere under the weight of our own crosses.

Prepare us to help our children listen for the small voice within,

where God calls them to further His love through them.

Inspire them to learn how to come to the silence, where God speaks.

May Our Lord graft our families to the vine of His love.

In the carrying of our crosses, teach us to pray.

As a mother, I feel a unique affliction when I see my children take up their own crosses.

How do I prepare my heart for the crosses my children will bear for love of God?

III. Jesus Falls the First Time

We adore You, O Christ and we praise You…

How do I stand when this Man takes a fall?

Though weakened in Body, His strength dwells in Soul.

How weakened am I as I stand in this place.

My strength be sustained in the Bread of Life.

Mother Mary,

How does a mother resist the reflex of love to lift her fallen Son?

His agony has weakened Him to further injury and pain before your very eyes.

As He is further inflicted, you are here, lifting Him with your loving prayers,

yet must rely on others to bring Him to His feet.

Does the strength that lies in His soul sustain you now?

Mary, Comforter of the Afflicted, pray for us!

What are we to learn when our own children, who are not perfect~fall.

Is it that sometimes they may fall in their own weakness,

in order to rise in His strength?

In His rising, may mothers find hope for their own fallen children.

Prepare us, O Mother, to have the strength to pray that even in our absence,

others will be there to lift our children should they fall.

If our own must fall, be with them, Blessed Mother, and lift them to draw closer to the tender Heart of your own Son.

When we have fallen, teach us to pray.

How often to I pray to the angels of my children

for all the ministries of love they provide in unseen ways?

May I think of a time when I accepted that a struggle to virtue was more important to the soul of my child, than the ease of a lower nature?

IV. Jesus Meets His Mother

We adore You, O Christ and we praise You…

This sorrowful journey is seen in the eyes,

Of His faithful mother, who stays by His side.

Steadfast in courage the two go on.

She stays by my side leading me to her son.

Mother Mary,

It is time for you to go to Him.

How does His gaze of agony spare your motherly heart of love?

How does a mother look into such agony of her child and survive?

He cannot hold you and the cross at the same time,

yet through His gaze into your soul, are we to learn what it truly means to be held?

Mother of our Creator, pray for us.

Help me to gaze into the eyes of those entrusted to my care,

and then to find your Son there waiting to be loved by me.

Give me the desire to pray each day and rest in His Sacred Heart each night.

When we seek Him in our own, Teach us to Pray.

Mother Angelica once told a mother who desired to go to Mass frequently,

but was often not able, due to her family responsibilities at home.

Mother Angelica explained that when a mother goes to Mass, Jesus is loving her,

But when a mother has to miss Mass to tend to her children, she is loving Jesus.

(Excerpt from ‘The Diary of Sister Faustina’)

“It pains Me very much when religious souls receive the Sacrament of Love merely out of habit, as if they did not distinguish this food. I find neither faith nor love in their hearts. I go to such souls with great reluctance. It would be better if they did not receive me (1258)…How painful it is to Me that souls so seldom unite themselves to Me in Holy Communion. I wait for souls, and they are indifferent toward Me. I want to lavish My graces on them, and they do not want to accept them. They treat me as a dead object, whereas My Heart is full of love and mercy. In order that you may know at least some of My pain imagine the most tender of mothers who has great love for her children, while those children spurn her love. Consider her pain. No one is in a position to console her. This is but a feeble image and likeness of My love (1447).

How do I see my duties as a loving expression of my love for the Lord?

Am I able to make a spiritual Holy Communion each day if I am unable to attend the Mass?

V. Simon of Cyrene Helps Jesus Carry His Cross

We adore You, O Christ and we praise You…

The weight of the Cross is too much to hold,

As strength from another man, lightens His load.

Do I ask for help in my time of need?

Do I assist all others in their poverty?

…The bread is not the same

The wine is somehow changed,

His Gift of Life remains,

Bringing Truth to the poor ones who follow in the way…

Mother Mary,

This agonizing way of the cross seizes my heart in the midst of daily duties.

This man, who is minding his own business, is rashly commissioned to

use his strength to preserve the life of your Son a little longer.

As he offers his strength, he is subject to the power of unbounded grace.

Simon was drawn into the blood of your Son, so close to Him now.

A mother prays.

He is changed forever.

Mary, Queen of Peace, pray for Us.

As my days are filled with ‘work in the Lord’, help me to remember the ‘Lord of this work’.

Pray that I may desire to willfully seek the heart of the Lord in a life of prayer and Sacrament.

Help me to surrender my weaknesses to Him,

so that He may bind me in grace to carry the crosses of His design, in love.

Help me to witness to my children, that time in prayer is where the heart of a servant is formed.

Remind me, Blessed Mother, that the Lord has a plan for each of my children and

that it is my duty to pray that they respond to Him with all their heart, soul, mind and strength.

In times of weakness, teach us to pray.

How does my prayer life form my motherhood?

How may I offer any free time in my day to the draw closer to the Lord?

VI. Veronica wipes the Face of Christ

We adore You, O Christ and we praise You…

As I gaze upon the face of Christ

I realize the anguish I see in His eyes

The comfort of cloth that is offered in faith

Leaves a remnant of hope for the price that He paid.

Mother Mary,

This daughter witnesses with her stoic, loving heart,

as she is moved with compassion to brave the mob and soldiers,

simply to offer all she had to comfort your Son.

Her gift to your Son was transformed into

His ‘forget Me not’ to us all.

Cloth becomes Presence.

Mary, Queen of All Saints, pray for us!

May my heart serve as a spiritual veil,

where our Lord may leave behind His image of Presence

for those entrusted to my care.

Help me to brave the culture of death to offer all I that I have to further the culture of life.

May the Lord increase where I serve,

May I decrease where He dwells.

Where death is imposed on the innocent, teach us to pray.

How may I prepare to respond in charity when I am confronted for passionately witnessing to the culture of life? Do I spend time familiarizing myself with the teachings from the Apostolic Succession on all aspects of life, from natural conception to natural death?

VII. Jesus Falls the Second Time

We adore you, O Christ…

This long narrow path leads us all to believe

Yet still once again He falls to His knees

How poor and how humbled His life has become

How empty am I when I see what we’ve done.

Mother Mary,

You magnify the agony of this fall through your motherly compassion for your Son.

When He falls, does He rest on your love?

Does a mother’s love make bearable what is an agony to endure?

Mary, Vessel of Honor, Pray for us.

Help me not to fear the sufferings I may endure for love of my children.

Grant me the desire to sacrifice for all the intentions I place before the Lord for love of them.

In times of suffering, teach us to pray.

How may I turn my disappointments into opportunities to sacrifice for their resolve?

How do the A.B.C.’s of mercy ~Ask for mercy, Be merciful, Completely trust~

provide an open door to the Lord to be trusting that all works to the good for those who love the Lord?

VIII. Jesus Meets the Women and Children of Jerusalem

We adore You, O Christ and we praise You…

To witness His anguish draws tears from the soul

With tender acceptance He calms and consoles

Do I see His anguish disguised in the poor?

Do my tears wash their feet with a love that endures?

Mother Mary,

These families speak to a life well loved and lived.

Out of the family, your Son was brought to this place.

Do these mothers and children bring to Him tenderness in the brutal air He breathes?

Mary, Help of Christians, pray for us.

Inspire us to grow our families faithfully, into the life and breath of His Church.

Help us to embrace the thanksgiving received from these families on Calvary.

May our ‘Thanksgiving’ be ever before us, always within us, never to leave us.

May my every expression in all matters, be one of thanksgiving in the Lord.

Pray for us, O Mother of us all.

Help mothers to serve faithfully the special mission of the family.

The family brings to the Church Her Priest.

The Priest brings to the Church Her saints.

In the life of the family, teach us to pray.

How may a mother inspire the family to pray together each day with tender humility?

Do I find ways of prayer that serve as an invitation to love with my children?

IX. Jesus Falls the Third Time

We adore You, O Christ, and we praise You…

The will of the Father is the call that He heads.

This final collapse will not serve to impede.

And what shall become of His plan in my life?

A prayer from the heart brings His will into sight.

Mother Mary,

Our Mother Church invites us three times to fall to Our Lord on Calvary.

Who will comfort Him now?

How will He rise to the Cross of our Salvation?

Does grace sustain your life, O Mother, when suffering all but consumes you?

Mary, Comforter of the Afflicted, pray for us.

How many, many times I fall to my our regrets in motherhood!

Admonish me, O Mother, when I subject myself to my own rash judgments,

that His mercy will be sufficient for the day.

When I fall, He is already there waiting to offer me the strength to rise in His life.

In times of failure, teach us to pray.

How may I surrender my own opinion of personal failings, to the mercy of the Lord?

X. Jesus is Stripped of His Garments.

We adore You, O Christ and we praise You…

His frailty revealed as He’s stripped of His clothes.

No man can robe from Him the treasure that He holds.

A treasure that clothes when all else falls away,

The poorest of poor, He chose to portray.

The bread is not the same,

The wine is somehow changed.

His ‘Gift of Life’ remains,

Bringing truth to the poor ones who follow in the way.

Mother Mary,

This cloak woven by your own hands,

~this last thread of love~

ripped away from His bloody, open-wounded body.

This Man of sorrows is exposed as the Son of your flesh.

How do we encounter this in love?

Mary, Queen of Families, pray for us.

Inspire my works to clothe my children in dignity and love.

Mother of our souls, cloak our children with your maternal attentiveness in all matters of faith.

Preserve them in trials.

Comfort them in sorrows.

Bring them safely to their heavenly reward.

Help me, Blessed Mother, to weave a life of prayer throughout the life of our family.

When our lives are torn, teach us to pray.

How do I further my studies in catechesis so as to respond

to the call to the new evangelization?

XI. Jesus is Nailed to the Cross

We adore you, O Christ, and we praise You…

He is one with the cross as He’s pierced by all sin.

No greater love than to give life for a friend.

Yet I give Him nails for the love that He’s shown.

The palms of His hands heal and offer us a home.

Mother Mary,

Even if you were to close your eyes,

your ears could not escape the sound of the hammer hitting the nails into your Son.

What could harden man so, that inflicting such pain could even be possible?

What led them to this hardening of heart?

What evil permeates this place of such human brutality?

The heart is where this ground is found.

Mary, Refuge of Sinners, pray for me.

Help me to assist in the life of grace on behalf of my children.

Lead us to understand the sins we commit that would serve to harden our hearts

and become immune to the pain we may inflict onto others.

When examining our consciences, Teach us to pray.

How may I examine my conscience at the end of my day?

How do I teach my children how they are to examine their conscience in preparation for a good Sacramental Confession?

Have I found spiritual reading that will quiet my soul before surrendering to sleep?

XII. Jesus Dies on the Cross

We adore you, O Christ and we praise You…

Abandoned to the end and now His time is at hand.

Compassion flows from Him to the bitter end.

Where can I begin to heal the wounds He bore?

His passion lives on in the lives of the poor.

Dear Mother Mary,

Only a miracle of grace would make it possible for you to survive His Passion and Death.

O Blessed Mother, here is when and here is where,

you labored to become the mother of every child in every generation.

He has set us free, but leaves us with His own mother to accompany us safely home to Him.

Mother of our Savior, pray for us.

Prepare our hearts each day to live a dying life.

Prepare our children to follow your love to the heart of your Son.

Help me, Mother of our family, to desire the path to holiness,

so that my children will follow me to where you lead.

At death’s dark hour, pray for us.

How do I live a dying life when the demands of motherhood present throughout my day?

XIII. Jesus is Taken Down from the Cross

We adore You, O Christ, and we praise You…

His life is stilled and yet He leaves behind

The Gift of blood and water flowing form His side.

The Breath of Life is called upon the bread and wine.

The poor with barren hearts come to be filled with life.

Excerpt taken from ‘The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ’

(Venerable) Anne Catherine Emmerich.

“The adorable head of Jesus rested upon Mary’s knee and His body was stretched upon a sheet. The Blessed Virgin was overwhelmed with sorrow and love. Once more, and for the last time, did she hold in her arms the body of her most beloved Son, to whom she had been unable to give any testimony of love during the long hours of his marytrdom. And she gazed upon his wounds and fondly embraced His blood-stained cheeks, while Magdalen pressed her face upon his feet.”

Mother Mary,

Place our hearts in safety when life brings to our arms the sorrows of motherhood.

All women are mothers, and therefore, are called to embrace the life of the cross.

We turn to you now, so that when our hour comes, grace will suspend us in faith.

Mary, Queen of Martyrs, pray for us.

Mary, Mother of the Church, be with us.

XIV. Jesus is Placed in the Tomb

We adore You, O Christ, and we praise You…

Mother Mary,

The tomb has never been more full, though your heart has never been more empty.

Your tears and kisses fill my heart with sadness,

as you spend your last moments in the sepulcher with your Son, in silent Adoration.

Mother of Divine Grace, Pray for us.

Pray for mothers that we may be granted the grace to endure

if ever our motherhood finds us empty-hearted.

In times of loneliness, teach us to pray.

Am I able to consider a time when my child withdrew love or seemed to be less inclined to turn to me in the hour of need?

How do I seek the Lord to prepare me to respond in love?

The resting place of Jesus holds within,

Hope and faith in promise for a new life to begin.

The dawn brings light where the darkness only dwelled.

The light reveals a flame that burns in love and heals.

The bread is not the same.

The wine is somehow changed.

His ‘Gift of Life’ remains

Bringing truth to the poor ones who follow in the Way.

Bringing peace to the poor ones who follow in the Way.

The Resurrection of Jesus

O Mother of the Eucharist,

Inspire us to prepare for our homecoming with your Son

each time we receive Him in Holy Communion.

Help us to spend time together before the Blessed Sacrament as a family,

whether near or far apart.

"Passion of the Christ"