Our Lady of Mount Virgin Station 8

Path 2 · The Way · Our Lady of Mount Virgin

Middlesex, New Jersey · Station 8 of 14

Jesus Speaks to the Women of Jerusalem

Even here, He turns the conversation away from His own suffering and toward theirs.

Our Lady of Mount Virgin Station 8, Jesus Speaks to the Women of Jerusalem

Here at Our Lady of Mount Virgin, Jesus stops in the middle of His own suffering to speak to the women of Jerusalem who are weeping for Him. Do not weep for Me, He tells them — weep for yourselves. Even carrying the weight of the world’s sin, He is not thinking of Himself.

It is a strange kind of correction, and a generous one. He turns their grief back toward something more useful than sorrow for Him alone — a real look inward, at their own hearts, and what still needs to change there.

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V. We adore Thee, O Christ, and we praise Thee.

R. Because by Thy holy Cross, Thou hast redeemed the world.

Even in His darkest hour, He is thinking about the well-being of others. This teaches us about the selfless nature of true compassion, and the importance of looking beyond our own pain to address the suffering around us.

“My Jesus, I weep for the sins I have committed against Thee, because of the pains they have deserved, but more because of the displeasure they have caused Thee, who hast loved me so much.”

— Saint Alphonsus Liguori, The Way of the Cross

V. Have mercy upon us, O Lord. R. Have mercy on us. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

Pray Together

Sit With It

Significant Figures in This Station

The Weight We Keep Adding

This isn’t a weight Jesus carried once, long ago, and set down. It is carried continually — mine and yours, today, added to whatever He already carried then. It’s easy to dismiss the small things we do, the things we assume no one notices.

What is one thing you do today, quietly, that you know adds weight to that cross?

Solidarity That Lightens the Load

Standing with someone who is suffering lightens what they carry, even when we can’t fix anything. Sometimes that support is simply a prayer offered honestly. Sometimes it asks more of us — real, tangible help, offered outside our comfort zone.

Who in your life is carrying something right now that your presence, not your solutions, could lighten?

Weeping for the Right Reason

Jesus doesn’t reject the women’s tears; He redirects them. Grief for someone else’s suffering is real and good, but He asks for something harder here too — a look at our own hearts, honestly, and what in them still needs to change.

When was the last time you let sorrow turn you toward your own conversion, instead of only outward?

Ponder As Mary Pondered

Jesus’ words are an invitation — to the women then, and to all of us now — to look honestly at our own hearts. How ready am I, really, for what spiritual readiness asks of me? Time feels like it’s running out some days, and I wonder if my own habits of prayer and quiet reflection are enough. Even at a death I’ve grieved, I’ve caught myself questioning my own tears — were they for the one I lost, or quietly for myself? Turning the question back on us, the way Jesus does here, is a reminder to keep tending to our own spiritual health, not only to grieve what’s in front of us.

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Small Twitches

By this point in the journey, something in me has been changing too. Compassion, empathy, humility, and a little more selflessness than I started with — these don’t arrive all at once. I think I would come apart if they did. They come instead in small twitches, one at a time, each one asking a little more of me than the last.

I keep praying for just another small measure of God’s mercy, to help deepen a lifelong journey I know I’ll still be walking when this station, and every station after it, is long behind me.

Continue the Journey

Jesus turned the women’s grief back toward their own hearts. Carry that same honest look into another part of your prayer, or another part of your life.

Which Station Speaks to You?

Maybe it’s this moment of Jesus turning grief back toward the heart. Maybe it’s a station further along. Tell us about a moment of grace you found while walking the Way of the Cross.

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A quiet path along the Way of the Cross