FIRST STATION
Jesus is condemned to death
Mt 27: 22-23, 26

Pilate said to them,
"Then what am I to do with Jesus,
the so-called Messiah?"
"Crucify him!", they all cried.
He said, "Why, what crime has he committed?".
But they only shouted the louder, "Crucify him!".
At that, he released Barabbas to them.
Jesus, however, he first had scourged;
then he handed him over to be crucified.
* * *
The Holy, Just, and True was judged by sinners, and put to death. Yet, while they judged, they were compelled to acquit Him. Judas, who betrayed Him, said, "I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood". Pilate, who sentenced Him, said, "I am innocent of the blood of this just person", and threw the guilt upon the Jews. The Centurion who saw Him crucified said, "Indeed this was a just man".
* * *
Thus ever, O Lord, Thou art justified in Thy words, and dost overcome when Thou are judged. And so, much more; at the last day "They shall look on Him whom they pierced"; and He who was condemned in weakness shall judge the world in power, and even those who are condemned will confess their judgement is just.

SECOND STATION
Jesus receives His Cross
Mt 27: 27-31

The procurator's soldiers
took Jesus inside the praetorium
and collected the whole cohort around him.
They stripped off his clothes and wrapped him in a scarlet military cloak.
Weaving a crown out of thorns they fixed it on his head,
and stuck a reed in his right hand.
Then they began to mock him,
dropping to their knees before him, saying,
"All hail, King of the Jews!".
They also spat at him.
Afterward they took hold of the reed and kept striking him on the head.
Finally, when they had finished making a fool of him,
they stripped him of the cloak,
dressed him in his own clothes,
and led him off to crucifixion.
* * *
Jesus supports the whole world by His divine power, for He is God; but the weight was less heavy than was the Cross which our sins hewed out for Him. Our sins cost Him this humiliation. He had to take on Him our nature, and to appear among us as a man, and to offer up for us a great sacrifice. He had to pass a life in penance, and to endure His passion and death at the end of it.
* * *
O Lord God Almighty,
who dost bear the weight of the whole world without weariness,
who bore the weight of all our sins,
though they wearied Thee,
as Thou art the Preserver of our bodies by Thy Providence,
so be Thou the Saviour of our souls by Thy precious blood.

THIRD STATION
Jesus falls under the weight of the Cross the first time
Is 53: 4-6

Yet it was our infirmities that he bore,
our sufferings that he endured,
While we thought of him as stricken,
as one smitten by God and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our offenses,
crushed for our sins;
Upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole,
by his stripes we were healed.
We had all gone astray like sheep,
each following his own way;
But the Lord laid upon him the guilt of us all.
* * *
Satan fell from heaven in the beginning; by the just sentence of his Creator he fell, against whom he had rebelled. And when he had succeeded in gaining man to join him in his rebellion, and his Maker came to save him, then his brief hour of triumph came, and he made the most of it. When the Holiest had taken flesh, and was in his power, then in his revenge and malice he determined, as he himself had been struck down by the Almighty arm, to strike in turn a heavy blow at Him who struck him. Therefore it was that Jesus fell down so suddenly.
* * *
O dear Lord,
by this Thy first fall
raise us all out of sin,
who have so miserably fallen
under its power.