Christ Speaks

The cross becomes a pulpit now --
"Forgive them, Father ...
You will be with me in Paradise...
There is your mother...
There...
your...
son...
I thirst...
It is complete."

To speak I have to raise myself
by pressing on my wrists and feet,
and every move engulfs me in new
waves of agony.

And then, when I have borne enough,
have emptied my humanity,
I let my mortal life depart.

The Twelfth Station
Jesus Dies

I Reply

My Jesus, God, what can I say or do?

I offer you my death
with all its pains,
accepting now
the time and kind of death in store for me.
Not by a single instant
would I lengthen my life's span.

I offer you my death
for my own sins
and for those of all humanity.

My God! My God! Forsake us not.
We know not what we do.