Take Up Your Cross
& Follow Me
A Holy Week Reflection
O my God,
I thank You for this cross You’ve allowed me to carry.
Please give me the strength and faith to persevere so that I may bring glory to Your Name,
all the while withstanding the burden of its weight.
Thank You for offering me a share in Your suffering.
I know You have always been,
are now,
and ever will be
at my side every step of the way.
Thank You also for every “Simon” You have sent to help me bear this cross.
I’ve prayed so often that this thorn in my flesh would be removed,
but I trust that Your grace is sufficient.
Change my heart’s troubled cry of:
“How long Lord?”
into words of trust:
“However long, O Lord.”
May I seek only to do Your will, and to unite my sufferings with Your passion.
Help me to not get lost in my own self-concerns,
but that I may find in these trials
a way to greater virtue,
a call to prayer,
and a path to trust in You alone.
Permit me not to waste my pain,
but to make of all these struggles a sacrificial offering for others, Lord.
When I am weary and I fall,
exhausted under the weight of this cross,
please give me the courage to press on as You did.
Lord Jesus, I embrace with love my cross, as a share in Your own.
By Your grace, may I carry it all the way to the vision of Your glory.
I abandon myself totally to Your will.
Christ Jesus, I trust in You.
Amen.
