This is the final part of a series of posts on the Stations of the Cross. Here are Stations I and IIand III and IV and Vand VI and VII and VIII andIX and X and XI and XII.
Station XIII: Jesus is taken down from the cross and laid in the arms of his mother.
"Now I will lie down in peace and sleep comes at once."
"My body shall rest in hope."
Station XIV: Jesus rests in the tomb.
"He descended into Hell."
"Something strange is happening – there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.
He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory. At the sight of him Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: “My Lord be with you all.” Christ answered him: “And with your spirit.” He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying: “Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.” " ~from an ancient homily, Office of Readings on Holy Saturday
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