SEVENTH STATION
JESUS FALLS FOR THE SECOND TIME

We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

From the Book of Lamentations – Chapter 3.
I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath; he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light. He has blocked my way with hewn stones; he has made my paths crooked. He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes.

Meditation
The tradition that Jesus fell three times beneath the weight of the cross evokes the fall of Adam – the state of fallen humanity – and the mystery of Jesus’ own sharing in our fall. Throughout history the fall of man constantly takes on new forms…In our own times…we can think of how Christianity has grown weary of faith and has abandoned the Lord. The great ideologies, and the banal existence of those who, no longer believing in anything, simply drift through life have built a new and worse paganism, which in its attempt to do away with God once and for all, has ended up doing away with man. The Lord bears this burden and falls, over and over again, in order to meet us. He gazes on us; he touches our hearts; he falls in order to raise us up.

Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, you have borne all our burdens and you continue to carry us. Our weight has made you fall. Lift us up, for by ourselves we cannot rise from the dust. Free us from the bonds of lust. In place of a heart of stone, give us a heart of flesh, a heart capable of seeing. Lay low the power of ideologies, so that all may see that they are a web of lies. Do not let the wall of materialism become insurmountable. Make us aware of your presence. Keep us sober and vigilant, capable of resisting the forces of evil. Help us to recognize the spiritual and material needs of others and to give them the help they need. Lift us up, so that we may lift others up. Give us hope at every moment of darkness, so that we may bring your hope to the world

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

Stabat Mater: Can the human heart refrain, from partaking in her pain, in that Mother’s untold pain?