The Thirteenth Station, Jesus is taken down from the Cross

A Mother’s Shared Sacrifice

The sky exhales its final grief,
the earth is still, holding its breath.
All is finished.

His Mother, Mary, kneels beneath the weight
of a silence too vast for words.
She does not wail,
her sorrow is deeper than sound,
a sea of aching love
cradling the broken Son of God.

Joseph and Nicodemus, with careful hands,
loosen the nails from wounded flesh,
lower Him, limb by limb,
into the arms of the woman
who first held Him in life
and now in death.

O sacred weight of Love,
torn, spent, yet infinite still.
She holds Him
as she once did in Bethlehem,
but now the world
has been undone.

And yet, grace lingers.
The grave will not have the final word.

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Let us pray:

O Lord, grant me the grace to stand with Mary
in the face of suffering,
to embrace the wounds of love
without fleeing from them.

When I feel the weight of sorrow,
when I see the brokenness of the world,
let me not despair, but believe,

O Jesus, held in Your Mother’s arms,
teach me to trust in the mystery of Your mercy.

Amen.