Jesus falls the third time
We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you:
Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.
I am one who has seen affliction under the rod of God’s wrath; he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light. He has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation; he has made me sit in darkness like the dead of long ago. Though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer. He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes. Remember my affliction and bitterness, the wormwood and the gall! [Lamentations 3:1-2, 5-6, 8, 16; 19 RSV]
Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter:
And like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth. [Isaiah 53:7]
Keep your Church, we pray you, O Lord, with your perpetual mercy; and, because the weakness of our nature cannot but fall, keep us ever by your help from all things that may hurt us, and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Take beneath the cross my station,
And in all thy desolation
So unite myself with thee.