Third Station — Jesus Falls the First Time

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. We adore You, O Christ, and we praise You, because by Your holy Cross You have redeemed the world. The Third Station. Jesus falls the first time. The cobblestones of Jerusalem rose up to meet Your face, Lord. The cross drove down on Your shoulders. Your legs gave out. You went to Your knees, then forward onto the ground. The crowd jeered. The soldiers cursed. They kicked at You to make You stand again. The prophet Isaiah, in chapter fifty-three, wrote of You, He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces, He was despised, and we held Him in low esteem. Lord, You knew what it was to fall. To collapse. To hit the ground hard while everyone watched. I have fallen too, Lord. So many times. I have promised You I would never sin that particular sin again, and I did. I have made resolutions and broken them. I have failed in big ways and in small ways. I have looked at the ground after I fell and wondered if I would ever get up. But You got up, Lord. With the cross still on You. You stood. You took another step. And another. That is what You ask of me too. Not to never fall. But to never stay down. Forgive me my falls, Lord. The ones I am ashamed of. The patterns that keep returning even after I think I have conquered them. The same temptation that got me last week, and the week before. Wash me again in Your Blood. The mercy is new every morning. And help me get up. Not in my own strength, because I have proven I do not have it. In Yours. With the cross still in place. Without making excuses. Without abandoning the journey. Just up. One more step. Send me people who pick me up. The friend who calls at the right moment. The priest in the confessional who reminds me of who I am. The wife or husband who loves me through my failures. 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. Amen. Have mercy on us, O Lord. Have mercy on us. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.