We are on the Via Dolorosa the way of the Cross having just left the Praetorium Where Pilate said to Christ I washed my hands off the matter And turned him over to the people and told them to do what they would with him There's no traffic here the streets's very narrow Little children playing along the street the street's about ten feet wide You see the third station of the Cross Where Christ almost fell under the weight of the Cross He's kneeling and the fourth station of the Cross over there Over forty or fifty feet farther toward Calvary Where His mother came up to Him and said my Son what's happened And she sees Him kneeling under the heavy weight of the Cross too Continuing on now toward Calvary from the fourth station of the Cross We left the Praetorium where Christ was sentenced and where he was turned over To the Jewish people and they were offered Barabbas and they said No give us Christ we'll crucify him Following along the stations of the Cross passing station No 5 And they say at this point that Simon a Cyrenean coming out of the country On him they laid the Cross they made him bear it for Jesus And they continued on the way of the Cross as we are now Leaving place No 5 toward Calvary it's a long long way from here You can see standing here between station No 5 and No 6 Two hundred yards at least up the steps toward Calvary's hill All along it's a very narrow street ten or twelve feet wide Shops on each side little children playing old men and women Carrying their bread dressed in their long robes Just as they did two thousand years ago The music here in the background is a radio playing (is that an Arab station) Still continuing up the way of the Cross toward Calvary The voices you hear in the background are pilgrims from all over the world All along the Via Dolorosa here there are beggars (I suppose mostly Arab beggars) Passing station No 10 continuing on to Calvary they are all along the way They say that they are all blind They say that the reason there are so many blind along This part of the country is because of the dust Everywhere the wind is blowing and the dust is flying And of course there are germs in the dust that diseases their eyes And the dust itself puts them out On the way to Calvary we pass another beggar sittin' along the way All kinds of shops pilgrims continuing on the same way we're going Now closer to Calvary the way really gets crowded It's still the same very narrow street though
