Opening Prayer
Heavenly Father, open our minds and hearts now to your presence that we may be renewed in our following of Jesus, Who is the Eternal Radiance of Your Face that You have shone into our darkness to show us the way to union with You.
We make our prayer to You through Jesus Christ Your Son, who lives and reigns with You and Your Holy Spirit, One God, for ever and Ever! Amen.
The Thirteenth Station: Jesus is Taken Down from the Cross
Meditation
The rigid husk of what had been Jesus was lowered from the cross into the raised and waiting arms of John and Mary and the others. They held His body and kissed His face, but there was nothing. He was not there. Only a wretched remnant of what had been His was among them, torn and punctured, disfigured and discolored, a corpse not fit for a good shroud and new tomb. Did any of them recall His words then, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up"?
Prayer
Father, help us to endure through those darkest moments when we seem to have no faith or hope left, just a mortally wounded love that continues to ache for what now seems wholly gone. Let Mary holding the dead body of her beloved Son sustain us during the dark night of the soul until we can experience the risen Jesus among us and the Holy Spirit He sends.
The Fourteenth Station: Jesus is Laid in the Tomb
