Prayer before the way of the Cross: “Prayer before the way of the Cross: The curtain is now about to go up on the awful and abiding drama of Thy Redemptive Love.  And as I hear Thy worlds, ‘Take up thy Cross daily and follow Me,’ I stand affrighted, lest its burden be too great and its shame too bitter.  If I could but see that Thy command to follow Thee to Calvary was not just an iron law of cruel fate, but a condition of everlasting happiness, perhaps I could better make the journey, but I fear, dear Jesus, lest having Thee I must have naught else beside.  Let this fear be dispelled in seeing death as the condition of life, for through Thy apostle, Paul, Thou hast told us it is the joy at the end of the journey that makes us endure the Cross, and even Thou, in loving kindness, hast asked all who labor and are burdened to come unto Thee, where they will find rest for their souls.  Then I shall take up the Cross, Jesus!  Why must we love Thee so!”  Archbishop Fulton Sheen (Prayer composed by Sheen to say before the Way of The Cross)