VII                                     

•      We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
  Because by your holy cross, you have redeemed the world

     The pain of His wounds and the loss of blood increasing at every step of His way, again His limbs fail Him, and He falls on the ground.

     What has He done to deserve all this? This is the reward received by the long-expected Messiahs from the Chosen People, the Children of Israel. I know what to answer. He falls because I have fallen. I have fallen again. I know well that without Your grace, O Lord, I could not stand; and I fancied that I had kept closely to Your Sacraments; yet in spite of my going to Mass and to my duties, I am out of grace again. Why is it but because I have lost my devotional spirit, and have come to Your holy ordinances in a cold, formal way, without inward affection. I have become lukewarm, tepid. I thought the battle of life was over, and became secure. I had no lively faith, no sight of spiritual things. I came to church from habit, and because I thought others would observe it. I ought to be a new creature, I ought to live by faith, hope and charity; but I thought more of this world than the world to come--and at last I forgot that I was a servant of God, and followed the broad way that leads to destruction, not the narrow way which leads to life. And thus I fell from You.