Prayer of the Holy Father

List of people carrying the cross along the 14 stations

At 21.15 this evening, at the Colosseum, the Holy Father Francis presided at the pious exercise of the “Via Crucis”, broadcast worldwide.

The texts of the meditations and prayers offered this year for the Stations of the Cross were prepared by a group of young students of a classical Roman high school, coordinated by Professor Andrea Monda.

The following is the prayer composed by the Holy Father, which he recited at the end of the Via Crucis, and the list of people who carried the cross along the 14 stations, including the young authors of the texts.

Prayer of the Holy Father

Lord Jesus, we turn to You, filled with shame, repentance and hope.

Before Your supreme love, shame pervades us for leaving You alone to suffer for our sins:

Shame for running away from trials, although we say thousands of times: “Even if everyone leaves you, I will never leave you”;

Shame for choosing Barabbas instead of You, power instead of You, appearance instead of You, the god of money instead of You, worldliness instead of eternity;

Shame for challenging You with words and intentions, every time we face a problem, saying: “If You are the Messiah, save Yourself and we will believe!”;

Shame for all those people, including some of your ministers, who let themselves be deceived by ambition and vain glory, forgetting their dignity and first love;

Shame for our generation which is leaving young people a world shattered by divisions and wars; a world devoured by selfishness where the young, the vulnerable, the sick, and the elderly are marginalized;

Shame for losing a sense of shame;

Lord Jesus, always grant us the grace to feel holy shame!

We look to You filled with repentance, begging for Your mercy, before Your eloquent silence:

Repentance that springs from the certainty that only You can save us from evil, only You can heal us from our leprosy of hate, selfishness, pride, greed, revenge, idolatry; only You can embrace us and restore our dignity as Your children, rejoicing for our return home, to life;

Repentance that comes from being aware of our smallness, our nothingness, and our vanity, allowing ourselves to be caressed by your sweet and powerful invitation to convert;

The repentance of David who finds his only strength in You from the depths of his suffering;

Repentance born of our shame, of the certainty that our heart will always remain restless until it finds You and in You, its only source of fulfilment and peace;

The repentance of Peter who, when his eyes met Yours, wept bitterly for denying You.

Lord Jesus, always grant us the grace of holy repentance!

Before your Supreme Majesty, hope is born and lights up the darkness of our despair, because we know that the only measure of Your love, is to love us without measure.

The hope that your message may continue, still today, to inspire many people, knowing that only good can defeat evil and wickedness, only forgiveness can overcome resentment and revenge, only a fraternal embrace can disperse the hostility and fear of the other.

The hope that your sacrifice may continue, still today, to emanate the fragrance of divine love that touches the hearts of all those who continue to consecrate their lives, becoming living examples of charity and free service, in a world devoured by the idea of quick profits and easy money.

The hope that missionaries may continue, still today, to challenge the slumbering consciousness of humanity, by risking their lives to serve You in the poor, the rejected, in immigrants, in those who are invisible, in the exploited, the hungry and in prisoners;

The hope that Your Church, holy and a home for sinners, may continue, still today, despite all attempts to discredit it, to be a beacon that enlightens, encourages, uplifts and bears witness to your endless love for humanity; may it be a model of unselfish generosity, a safe haven of salvation, and a source of certainty and truth.

The hope that comes from knowing that Your Cross, created by the greed and cowardice of hypocrites and Doctors of the Law, is the source of the Resurrection, which transforms the darkness of the tomb into the dawn brightness of the Sunday on which the sun never sets, and that teaches us that Your love is our hope.

Lord Jesus, always grant us the grace of holy hope!

Son of Man, help us to strip ourselves of the arrogance of the unrepentant thief, of the short-sighted and the corrupt, of all those who see You as an opportunity to exploit, a convict to criticize, a loser to mock, another chance to put the blame on someone else, even God.

We ask you instead, Son of God, to identify us with the good thief who looked at you with eyes full of shame, repentance and hope; who, with the eyes of faith, saw in your apparent defeat the divine victory and so kneeled before your mercy, and with honesty stole paradise! Amen!

List of people carrying the cross along the 14 stations