Station XIII.
Christ is taken down from the Cross.
V. We adore Thee, O Lord Jesus Christ, and bless Thee.
R. Because by Thy holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.
The Mystery.
HIS Station represents the place where Christ's most sacred body was taken
down from the Cross by Joseph and Nicodemus, and laid in the bosom of His
weeping Mother.
Consider the sighs and tears of the Virgin Mother, with what pangs she embraced the bloody remains of her beloved Jesus. Here unite your tears with those of the disconsolate Mother. Reflect that your Jesus would not descend from the Cross until He consummated the work of redemption; and that at His departure from, as well as at His entrance into the world, He would be placed in the bosom of His beloved Mother. Hence learn constancy in your pious resolutions! cleave to the standard of the Cross. Consider with what purity that soul should be adorned which receives, in the blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist, Christ's most sacred body and blood.
Prayer.
T LENGTH, O Blessed Virgin ! Mother of sorrow! thou art permitted
to embrace thy beloved Son. But alas! the fruit of thy immaculate womb
is all over mangled, in one continued wound. Yes, O Lord! the infernal
fury of the Jews has at length triumphed; yet we renew their barbarity,
crucifying Thee by our sins, inflicting new wounds. Most afflicted mother of my
Redeemer, I conjure thee by the pains and torments thou sufferedst in the common
cause of Salvation, to obtain for me, by thy powerful intercession, pardon of my sins,
and grace to weep with a sympathizing feeling, thine and thy Son's afflictions. As often
as I appear at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, let me embrace Tliee, my Jesus, in the
bosom of my heart. May I worthily receive Thee as the sacred pledge of my salvation.
Amen, Jesus.
Our Father, &c. Hail Mary, &c. Glory, &c.
Jesus Christ crucified, have mercy on us!
When from the Cross they took this blessed form.
His Mother cries, my Son, I am forlorn;
My child is dead, you virgins join with me.
Bewail in tears my love's sad destiny.
