Eleventh Station ~ Jesus is Nailed to the Cross

Eleventh Station 

Eleventh Station St. Emma Monastery

Jesus is Nailed to the Cross

As the three nails were driven home into the wood, fastening Him to it irrevocably Christ gave Himself to all those men and women who in the years to come would nail themselves to 

His cross by the three vows of religion: 

poverty, chastity and obedience; 

{We take: conversion of life, stability and obedience, in our Monastic tradition.} 

those wise ones who know the weakness of human nature, who know how easily the will can falter when the sweetness of the first consolation of prayer is over; how hard and bleak the winter of the spirit when its springtide and its summer and harvesting seem passed for ever; how hard to go on faithfully clinging to the Christ  life with only one's own weak will to drive one.

  Christ, receiving the nails, gave Himself to those men and women who would nail themselves by the binding vows to Himself upon the cross, who would have the ability to remain true to their chosen life because their hands and feet are put into His hands and feet, and they are held onto the cross by the nails that held Him.

The Way of the Cross by Caryll Houselander