composed by Barry Norris, We Are Church - UK Coordinating Team member 

… all will be scattered, leaving me  alone.

John 16 v 32

Help me, Jesus, when I stand alone, when I feel the odd one out in my parish because I press for change and honesty. Help me to remember I am not alone.

Other people have stood up for the truth and received unfair treatment at the hands of Church and State.

Help me to realise that they stand with me, along with all the saints who fought for reform in your Church down the ages.

So much that has happened in the Church down the centuries, Lord, has involved the abuse of power. Christians have wanted to take the easy way to change things by force or bullying.

Help me never to be seduced by power.

When you were most helpless in receiving the instrument of your death, then you were able to bring about the salvation of the world.

Yours is the way of gentleness and love.

May it be my way always.

Accepting that we will fall is part of growing up, of adulthood. Taking responsibility for my life and for my place in the Church is what adulthood is all about.

Help me, my Brother, never to blame others without first looking at myself.

Assist me to become a mature Christian, who is always ready to make change happen by involving myself with my Christian brothers and sisters. And if I fail, help me to try again.

Mary is there at the right time, in the right place. Jesus and Mary are united in suffering, comforting each other.

Only when we are wounded ourselves can we bring healing to others.

Help me, Jesus, along with my sisters and brothers to bring your healing to the Church and the world. Especially assist me to help my family, friends and neighbours if they have lost their way in today’s world and today’s Church.

In all their hurt and dismay may they not turn away from you and your Body on Earth, the Church.

Simon is an unwilling helper, he is compelled to carry the cross by a soldier. Nevertheless, he does help and the tradition is that through this encounter with Jesus he became a Christian.

Jesus, on many occasions I am unwilling to accept the challenges which are put before me, especially the challenges of being a mature Christian.

Help us all to accept the challenges in our own lives and in the life of the Church, especially to think seriously when other people ask us to take on things.

A woman steps out courageously from the crowd. She wipes the face of Jesus in spite of threats, verbal abuse and violence. Veronica acts according to her conscience. Help us all, O God, to live our lives as you guide us. Help us to educate ourselves through the study of your Word and the experiences of our Christian sisters and brothers. Give us the strength to always act according to our consciences, even if this opposes civil or ecclesiastical rules.

As we contemplate the second fall of Jesus, we remember all those who fall prey to temptation and abuse either physically or mentally. We pray especially for priests and religious who have fallen in this way.

Give me, Jesus, a compassionate heart which never judges harshly, but always tries to help and heal broken lives and hearts.

The women of Jerusalem weep over the suffering Jesus and he has compassion for them concerning the sad things which will happen in that city. The women’s compassion is a ministry towards Jesus.

Our Leader in Life, help us all to understand the unique gifts which women bring to your Church.

If I am a man, help me to truly appreciate these gifts and work for a new attitude to women in the Church.

If I am a woman, help me to affirm my gifts and those of other women so that women have access to leadership and sacramental ministries.

Look and see: is any sorrow like the sorrow that afflicts me?

Lamentations 1 v 12

Jesus nears the end of his last journey and is completely drained of strength. He has great difficulty in rising, but he gets up and staggers on.

This station gives encouragement to all who struggle on in their lives or their parishes and who feel isolated and unjustly treated.

As we struggle for the renewal of your Church, give us the grace of perseverance which you won for us in your third fall.

They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothes.

Psalm 22 v 18

Jesus is stripped not just of his clothes but of his dignity, his respect, his human rights.

This happens today under repressive political regimes, but it also happens in the Church, when basic human rights or processes of justice are ignored.

Help me, Jesus, never to just stand by and do nothing when human rights are abused. Give me courage to reproach Church leaders when theologians and other writers are persecuted and their rights abused.

Lord we ask for forgiveness for all the cruelty of humanity, for all the arrogance of corrupt religious leaders, for ourselves who stand by and do nothing while others suffer for what they believe in.

Jesus, as you die on the cross, you reach out to all human beings.

Help us to work for a Church which affirms our common humanity, irrespective of sex, race, colour, class, and sexual orientation.

Help us to work for a Church which loves those who are homosexual or lesbian, divorced or have left the active priesthood or religious life.

In these words Jesus commends his mother to St John, but he also commends her to us. How sad Mary must be to see the Church so divided because of the reactionary attitudes of those in authority who will not listen.

Mary, help me always to listen to others and to try to assist others to create true Christian communities which use dialogue with others to convey your Son’s Gospel to new hearts.

Jesus dies on the cross, his open arms enfolding all people of all ages.

Help me, Jesus, to work for a Church which reaches out in love to all people, rich or poor, young or old, black or white, gay or straight, married or single.

Help us all to live without guilt and fear and assist us in our work for reconciliation and justice in the world.

Jesus is taken down from the cross and laid in the arms of his mother.

How can we conceive of the grief of Mary and the grief of all parents whose children have been unjustly treated, whose loved ones have been victims of imprisonment and torture, or who have simply disappeared, and those who have watched their children die of starvation.

Give me, Jesus, a compassionate heart that identifies with the suffering of humanity and a courageous heart to work for an end to injustice and poverty.

By ordinary human standards this might have been the end of Jesus and his message.

We know that it was not the end, but the beginning.

Help us never to lose heart, even at the blackest moment.

Help me, my God, to understand that change must involve cost, that a transformed Church will only come about through effort and struggle, which I cannot evade.

We praise God for the glorious victory he has brought about through the Resurrection of His Son.

We thank him for breathing the Holy Spirit upon the Church and all humankind.

We pray for the renewal of the Church and that each of us may be caught up in that empowering movement.

In the Church, Jesus, may all people be treated as equals because all are temples of the Holy Spirit.

May the gifts of every person, including my own, be respected and used and may I take responsibility for decision-making in the Church.

May we live Resurrection and not just talk about it.