Make
me feel as thou hast felt:
Make my soul to glow and melt
With the love
of Christ, my Lord.
Pray for us, Virgin most sorrowful
That we may be made worthy of the promises
of Christ.
Jesus Falls the Third Time.
and we bless you.
Because by your holy cross
you have redeemed the world.
Station 9
(4)This last fall is devastating.
Jesus can barely proceed to the end.
Summoning all this remaining strength, supported by his inner trust in God, Jesus collapses under the weight of the cross. His executioners look at him as a broken man, pathetic yet paying a price he deserves.
They help him up so he can make it up the hill of crucifixion.
I pause to contemplate him there on the ground.
The brokeness that makes me whole. The surrender that gives me life. I pause to experience and receive how completely he loves me.
He is indeed completely poured out for me.
As I treasure this gifted experience, I express what is in my heart.
Lord Jesus, help us walk in your steps.
Meditation:
(2) Every station along this way is a milestone of obedience and self-deprivation.
We can appreciate the extent of that self deprivation when we see Jesus falling for the third time under the cross.
We can appreciate it when we think carefully who it is who is falling.
Who is it who has fallen? Who is Jesus Christ?
"His nature was divine, yet he did not cling to his equality with God but preferred to deprive himself of it, taking the nature of a slave and becoming as men are; and after taking on human nature he became humbler still, making himself obedient even to death, death on a cross."(Phil 2,6-8)
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father.
Lord Jesus crucified, have mercy on us.
