Entering Holy Week

Lord, You told your disciples: "If someone wants to follow Me, they must deny themselves, carry their cross and follow Me." In Your Name we pray: Lord, help us to take up our cross and follow you.

You stood before Pilate. You were condemned to death, while Your Words were rejected and Your Innocence scorned.

Protect us from rejecting Your Word, which is full of truth and redemption.

You carried your cross because You loved us, because you loved the whole world.

Help us to carry our cross, because we love you and we want to love the whole world like You do.

The weight of the cross was the weight of our sins, those sins that make us stumble and fall.

In our weakness we come to You for strength.

Even though You were suffering, You still reached out and cared for your mother.

Please make it so that the cross that we bear doesn’t hinder us from seeing the people around us.

When You struggled to carry your cross, they forced a passer-by to carry it for You.Make us willing, like Simon, to carry the burdens of those around us that are suffering.

Others also risked standing by You.

Strengthen our faith so that we are able to care for our brothers and sisters in You.

The burden of sin rested heavily on Your Shoulders while You stumbled along the way of the cross.

Forgive, Lord, the sin that makes us stumble and fall.

Your suffering on the way to Golgotha made the woman of Jerusalem weep.

Give that our suffering in this life may be taken up into your suffering on the way of the cross.

The full burden of our sins shattered You.

Please do not let us continue in our sin, but cause in us regret and faith.

Exposed and mocked, You endured the humiliation without protesting.

Make us humble in everything that we do and experience daily.

Nailed to the cross, You took your place between the condemned.

Please be with us as sinners, and bring us with You into paradise through our faith.

When your sacrifice was complete, You surrendered Yourself into the hands of the Father.

Keep us always close to your cross and your death, now and in the hour of our death.

True friends and dedicated women took care of your body.

Make us true and dedicated in our care for your body here on earth.

In the grave You were laid down, but from that grave You were resurrected.

Be the Lord of the resurrection for us as well as everyone else that belongs to You.

Lord Jesus, because of the cross and your suffering we were absolved, our sins were washed away and our relationship with You was restored. And so we thank You for the cross and for the depth of your love for us. Help us to carry our cross in this world, to follow You until we walk with You into the Kingdom of God, where You reign together with the Father and the Holy Spirit – one God, now and forever more.

Amen.