Augustinian Nun writes meditations for Via Crucis

The light of a thousand candles illuminated the dark night sky as a simple wooden Cross wound its way around Rome’s ancient Coliseum. Carried in turn by a family from the diocese of Rome, by two Augustinian religious, by a friars from the Holy Land – the land of Our Lord’s passion, by a family from Ethiopia and two faithful from Egypt, the Cross finally came to rest before Pope Benedict XVI. This year, Pope Benedict turned to the world of Augustinian Nuns for the texts of the prayer, entrusting their composition to Sister Maria Rita Piccione, O.S.A., Mother President of the Our Lady of Good Counsel Federation of Augustinian Monasteries in Italy.
In her meditations, specifically spiritual in nature, each station took up a particular footprint left by Christ along the Way of the Cross, a footstep in which the believer is called to tread; truth, honesty, humility, prayer, obedience, freedom, patience, conversion, perseverance, simplicity, kingship, self-giving, maternity, silent expectation.
At the Third Station when Jesus falls for the first time Sr. Maria Rita writes : “Jesus turns to us, shows us a path, becomes our teacher. He invites us to come to him whenever we experience human powerlessness, and to discover there the closeness of God’s power”.
Marking the Fifth Station – when Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the Cross - she notes : “Simon of Cyrene is really each of us. He accepts the burden of the cross of Jesus, just as we ourselves received the sign of the cross at Holy Baptism”.
Of Veronica at the Sixth Station, Sr. Maria Rita reflects on the unique role of women: “Veronica teaches us the secret of that feminine gaze that invites encounter and offers help: it sees persons with the heart!^”.
As Jesus is nailed to the cross, the Augustinian nun writes: “The image of the Crucified One, which no human decree will ever be able to remove from the walls of our heart, will remain for ever the royal Word of Truth: the “Crucified Light which enlightens the blind”, the “treasure which only prayer can unlock”,the heart of the world”.
As Christ dies on the Cross, she concludes: “This final breath which brings Jesus’ life to completion… is also a summons to all of us who believe in him”. “Now the voice of “God speaks in silent depths of the heart”.
Listen: