Third Week

Death on the Cross

The completion of the work of redemption. See how he dies out of love for me.

Preparatory prayer

Ask God our Lord for the grace that all my intentions, actions and works may be directed purely to the service and praise of his Divine Majesty.

See Mount Calvary and the cross raised up, with the Lord nailed to it.

Sorrow, grief and confusion, seeing that the Lord goes to his death for my sins.

Look at Christ crucified: wounded, crowned with thorns and stripped of everything.
See how his divinity hides itself: able to destroy his enemies, he lets his most holy humanity suffer the cruellest torments.
Listen to the seven words he speaks from the cross, full of forgiveness, thirst for souls and trust in the Father.
See how he breathes his last and gives up his spirit, and how creation trembles: darkness and the earth shaking.

Look at Christ dead on the cross and ask myself: what have I done for Christ? What am I doing for Christ? What will I do for Christ?

Adapted from the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola (1548).