THE ROAD TO CALVARY

LUCAS 23 26 to 32

As they led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.

A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them:

Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then they will say to the mountains: Fall on us! and to the hills. Cover us! For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?

Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed.