Eighth Station: Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem
LUKE 23:27-31
A great number of the people followed him, and among them were women who were beating their breasts and wailing for him. But Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For the days are surely coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us’; and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ For if they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
In every age, in every society, there are those who are filled with compassion for suffering, especially on behalf of the innocent. Jesus is followed by women from Jerusalem, who realize that no last minute pardon is coming. The pain of the cross will not be put away.
PSALM 80:5-7
You have fed us with the bread of tears;
you have given us bowls of tears to drink.
You have made us the derision of our neighbors,
and our enemies laugh us to scorn.
Restore us, O God of hosts; Show the light of your countenance,
and we shall be saved.
Pray for—
- • women, and for those everywhere who recognize with compassion the suffering of others and weep with the pain.
- • those who must be separated from their loved ones by war, imprisonment, or other adversity.
- • those who mourn their lost loves, and for those who have lost someone to violence not of their own making.
- • the women of Jerusalem today—Jews, Christians, Muslims, Palestinians, Arabs, Israelis, Armenians, and others.
- • the women standing in your own life today.
- • the powerless.
- • yourself, that the Holy Spirit will give you Christ’s own heart and mind to respect and love those around you.