Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 26:44

"And he left them again, and went away, and prayed a third time, saying again the same words." — Matthew 26:44 (ASV)

Saying the same words — This fact suggests that repetition in prayer indicates not formalism, but intensity of feeling. Lesser forms of sorrow may, as it were, play with grief and vary their expression, but the deepest and sharpest agony is content to fall back on the iteration of the very same words.