WAY OF THE CROSS AT THE COLOSSEUM, PRAYER OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS

Lord Jesus, help us to see in Your Cross all the crosses of the world:
the cross of those who hunger for bread and for love;
the cross of those who are alone and abandoned, even by their own children and
relatives,
the cross of those who thirst for justice and peace;
the cross of the elderly who bear the weight of the years and of solitude;
the cross of migrants who find doors closed due to fear, and hearts armoured by
political calculations;
the cross of the little ones, wounded in their innocence and their purity;
the cross of humanity that wanders in the darkness of uncertainty and in the obscurity
of the culture of the momentary;
the cross of families broken by betrayal, by the seductions of the evil one or by
murderous lightness and selfishness;
the cross of the consecrated who seek tirelessly to bring Your light in the world and
who feel rejected, mocked and humiliated;
the cross of the consecrated who along the way have forgotten their first love;
the cross of your children who, believing in You and seeking to live according to Your
word, find themselves marginalized and rejected even by their relatives and peers;
the cross of our weaknesses, of our hypocrisies, of our betrayals, of our sins and of
our many broken promises;
the cross of Your Church who, faithful to Your Gospel, struggles to bring Your love
even among the baptized themselves;
the cross of the Church, Your bride, who feels continually assailed from within and
without;
the cross of our common home that withers gravely before our selfish eyes, blinded
by greed and power.
Lord Jesus, revive in us the hope of the resurrection and of Your definitive victory
against every evil and every death. Amen!