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| Stations of the Cross
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| The
Seventh Station |
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Jesus Falls the Second Time |
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V.
We adore thee, O Christ, and we bless thee:
(genuflect)
R.
Because by thy holy Cross thou hast redeemed the world.
THE
READING: (Isaiah 53:3, 5-6)
He
is despised and rejected of men: a man of sorrows and acquainted with
grief, and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we
esteemed him not. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he
was bruised for our iniquities: and with his stripes we are
healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned
everyone to his own way: and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of
us all.
V.
I did open the sea before thee: and thou hast opened
my side with a spear.
R.
Holy and Immortal, have mercy upon us.
Let us
pray:
O
Lord Jesus Christ, who by thy death didst take away the sting of death:
Grant unto us thy servants so to follow in faith where thou hast led the
way, that we may at length fall asleep peacefully in thee, and awake up
after thy likeness; for thy tender mercies' sake (who livest and
reignest with the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost,
ever one God, world without end). Amen.
V.
O Savior of the world, who by thy Cross and Precious Blood hast redeemed
us:
R.
Save us and help us, we humbly beseech thee, O Lord.
| Reflection:
The
pain of His wounds and the loss of blood increasing at every step of
His way, again His limbs fail Him, and He falls on the ground.
What
has He done to deserve all this? This is the reward received by the
long-expected Messiahs from the Chosen People, the Children of
Israel. I know what to answer. He falls because I have fallen. I
have fallen again. I know well that without Thy grace, O Lord, I
could not stand; and I fancied that I had kept closely to Thy
Sacraments; yet in spite of my going to Mass and to my duties, I am
out of grace again. Why is it but because I have lost my devotional
spirit, and have come to Thy holy ordinances in a cold, formal way,
without inward affection. I have become lukewarm, tepid. I thought
the battle of life was over, and became secure. I had no lively
faith, no sight of spiritual things. I came to church from habit,
and because I thought others would observe it. I ought to be a new
creature, I ought to live by faith, hope and charity; but I thought
more of this world than the world to come--and at last I forgot that
I was a servant of God, and followed the broad way that leadeth to
destruction, not the narrow way which leadeth to life. And thus I
fell from Thee. |
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