THIRD STATION
JESUS FALLS THE FIRST TIME

LEADER: We adore you, O Christ,
and we praise you.

ALL: Because by your holy cross
you have redeemed the world.

LOOKING AT JESUS

Jesus, you the one who told us that your yoke is easy and your burden light, could fall. You could crumble beneath the weight of a cross. All the pressures finally caught up to you: the long night of trials, the beating with whips, the crowning with thorns, and now the carrying of the cross. They finally wore you down to the ground.

Jesus, you emptied yourself of your divinity and we spend our lives trying to fill up our empty humanity. No wonder we fall. We spend so much of our time trying to lord it over everyone who gets in our way -- causing them to fall as well as ourselves. You, the creator of our world, could fall down to a gutter in our streets, to show us we can rise from our gutters and enter into your divinity.

3rd STATION PRAYER – THE FALL

Lord, here I am down at the bottom of myself. And Lord, out of my depths, I cry to you for help. At times, it’s hard to admit I too am human. At times, it’s hard to admit I fall.

Lord, at times, it’s so hard to admit I sin. I become proud, stupid, too big for myself. So I fall down to the bottom of myself, to the gutter of my own sins.