They arrived at the appointed place where He who bore all crosses stood, welcoming saint and sinner with open arms. He lifted the burden from each one’s shoulder and placed it in a circle around the Cross, which He for us had borne. They sat around in silence, and as his gaze looked with love into each heart they knew instinctively that He knew and understood the weight and burden of the cross they carried. He spoke in tongues but no sound came, yet each one heard his words within the heart, which changed the weight and texture of the cross they carried. He then raised his hands and gave a blessing and then He gave a strange direction and a choice. Whoever wished could exchange their cross for his, or for the cross of those who had caused them pain, or they could embrace their own, now transformed with compassionate love. And if they were to travel further with him in the peace and joy they now experienced, they must allow his compassion to flow, which forgave the other and sought forgiveness for themselves. Strange as it may seem none of them exchanged their crosses of this and few if any took the crosses of this and few if any took the crosses of their afflictors. Those who did left them down again for they realised that they were very heavy, that their own crosses fitted their own shoulder best for the rest of their journey home.
