The Fourteenth Station

Jesus is Laid in the Tomb

We adore You, O Christ, and we praise You.

Because by Your holy Cross You have redeemed the world.

You lifted so many in Your life. With Your words and deeds You carried the broken and the weak. Now it is others who carry You. They clean You with great gentleness and wrap You in white cloth. You are laid in a garden tomb.

Amen, amen, I say to you,

unless a grain of wheat falls

to the ground and dies,

it remains just a grain of wheat;

but if it dies, it produces much fruit.

John 12:24

Adam's sin buried and through the compassion of others, a garden is prepared for the Resurrection.

Glory to be to the Father,

and to the Son,

and to the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

We pray. Dear Lord, the tomb is sealed. The time of waiting has begun. We have faith that these hours of waiting are necessary. We must pause and be patient. So often in our lives we struggle with patience. We plant the seeds of our ideas, efforts, and good intentions but expect an immediate and predictable harvest. How we are like the disciples who believed in Christ, but did not expect a Cross, a death, or a burial. Teach us Lord, as You did them, the lesson of the tomb. Help us to see that while we tend our seeds, we cannot control when or how the fruit of our efforts will grow. Show us again that patiently and lovingly tending the garden will make it, and us ready for the Resurrection.

Amen.

We are often not a patient people. In this station, Christ teaches us a valuable lesson in waiting.

Let nothing disturb you,

Let nothing frighten you,

All things are passing away;

God never changes.

Patience obtains all things.

Whoever has God lacks nothing;

God alone suffices.

~Saint Teresa of Avila

For in hope we are saved. Now hope that sees for itself

is not hope. For who hopes for what one sees? But if

we hope for what we do not see, we wait with patience.

Romans 8:24–25