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The Fourteenth Station:
Jesus is Laid in the Sepulcher

My Jesus, You were laid to rest in a stranger's tomb. You were born with nothing of this world's goods and You died detached from everything. When You came into the world, men slept and angels sang and now as You leave it, Creation is silent and only a few weep. Both events were clothed in obscurity. The majority of men live in such a way. Most of us live and die knowing and known by only a few. Were You trying to tell us, dear Jesus, how very important our lives are just because we are accomplishing the Father's Will? Will we ever learn the lesson of humility that makes us content with who we are, where we are and what we are?

Will our Faith ever be strong enough to see power in weakness and good in the sufferings of our lives? Will our Hope be trusting enough to rely on Your Providence even when we have nowhere to lay our head? Will our Love ever be strong enough not to take scandal in the cross?

My Jesus, hide my soul in Your heart as You lie in the Sepulcher alone. Let my heart be as a fire to keep you warm. Let my desire to know and love You be like a torch to light up the darkness. Let my soul sing softly a hymn of repentant love as the hours pass and Your Resurrection is at hand. Let me rejoice, dear Jesus, with all the Angels in a hymn of praise and thanksgiving for so great a love- so great a God- so great a day!

Amen

Closing Prayer

My Jesus, I have traveled Your Way of the cross.
It seems so real and I feel so ashamed. I complain of my
sufferings and find obedience to the Father's Will difficult. My Mind
bogged down by the poverty, sickness, starvation, greed and hatred
in the world.
There are many innocent people who suffer so unjustly. There are
those born with physical and mental defects. Do we understand that
You continue to carry Your cross in the minds and bodies of each
human being?
Help me to see the Father's Will in every incident of my daily
life. This is what You did - you saw the Father's Will in Your persecutors,
Your enemies and your pain.
You saw a beauty in the Cross and embraced it as a desired treasure.
My worldly mind is dulled by injustice and suffering and I
lose sight of the glory that is to come. Help me to trust the Father
and to realize that there is something great behind the most insignificant
suffering. There is Someone lifting my cross to fit my shoulders - there
is Divine Wisdom in all the petty annoyances that irk my soul
every day.
Teach me the lessons contained in my Cross,
the wisdom of its necessity, the beauty of its variety and the
fortitude that accompanies even the smallest cross.
Mary, My Mother, obtain for me the grace to be Jesus
to my neighbor and to see my neighbor
in Jesus.

Amen.