“My Lord and my God, under the loving eyes of our Mother, we are making ready to accompany you along this path of sorrow, which was the price for our redemption. We wish to suffer all that you suffered, to offer you our poor, contrite hearts, because you are innocent, and yet you are going to die for us, who are the only really guilty ones. My Mother, Virgin of sorrows, help me to relive those bitter hours which your Son wished to spend on earth, so that we, who were made from a handful of clay, may finally live in libertatem gloriae filiorum Dei,in the freedom and glory of the children of God.”
This introductory prayer composed by Saint Josemaría aptly summarizes the goal of this book: The Way of the Cross, just like Holy Rosary is a book for contemplation. The reader accompanies Christ through the fourteen traditional stations, gazing in wonder and contrition at the redemptive love in the sufferings of Christ. After the description of each station, several points for meditation are offered.
Álvaro del Portillo comments in the foreword that when Saint Josemaría encouraged Christians to follow, in the footsteps of Jesus, the way of the Cross by placing themselves in the wounds of Christ crucified, “he was doing no more than pass on his own experience, pointing out the short cut he had been using throughout his life, and which led him to the highest peaks of spiritual life. His love for Jesus was always something real, tangible and strong; it was tender, filial and very moving.”
Published posthumously in 1981, it has sold 500,000 copies in 19 languages.