Station Nineteen
Greg Kirscher: Finished (black & white photo 16 x 20)
Colossians 2:13-15
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
The Regal Dark Mysterious Cross
The regal dark mysterious cross
In song is lifted high,
The wood on which our God was raised
As Man against the sky.
Upon this wood his body bore
The nails, the taunts, the spear,
Till water flowed with blood to wash
The whole world free of fear.
At last the song that David sang
Is heard and understood:
“Before the nations God as king
Reigns from his throne of wood.”
This wood now spread with purple wears
The pageantry of kings;
Of chosen stock it dares to hold
On high his tortured limbs.
O blessed Tree, upon whose arms
The world's own ransom hung;
His body pays our debt and life
From Satan's grasp is wrung.
O sacred Cross, our steadfast hope
In this our Passiontide,
Through you the Son obtained for all
Forgiveness as he died.
May every living creature praise
Our God both one and three,
Who rules in everlasting peace
All whom his cross makes free.
-Venantius Fortunatus, 6th-century priest and poet
Savior, who in human flesh conquered tears by crying, pain by suffering, death by dying, we, your servants, gather before the Cross to commemorate your Passion and to contemplate anew the wonder of your compassionate love. As we listen to your gracious words, uttered with dying lips, illumine our souls that we may know the truth, melt our hearts that we may hate our sins, nerve our wills that we may do your bidding; to the glory of your name and our own eternal gain.
Charles Henry Brent (1862-1929) - Episcopal bishop of the Philippines
