by showing the deepest sorrow of heart, by weeping bitterly all day and all night, and by never forgetting the pain and the anguish which Thou hadst to endure. She felt every Wound of Thine as if it had been her own, and the more she loved Thee the more vehement was her grief, the more copious were her tears. When she saw Thee stripped naked and nailed to the Cross, she stood with Thy Mother at its foot, as close to it as she dared; and in spite of the intense anguish of her grief, for nothing in the world would she leave Thy Cross; to Thee and to Thy Mother she clung most faithfully until Thy death. When she heard Thy loud cry, and saw Thee die upon the Cross, so overwhelmed was she with grief that her soul fainted within her. Nourishment she could not take; sleep forsook her eyes. Tears were her only meat; to live longer deprived of Thee seemed to her a lot too hard to bear. Had she not been in all things submissive to Thy Will, she could after Thy death have endured life no longer. Her constant lamentations show that without Thee this life had no joy for her.
But, Mary, for the sake of thy loved One as He hangs upon the Cross, refrain thyself this once, I pray thee, for a while, and support the Mother of Jesus and her sisters in their hour of grievous need. Think not of forsaking the Mother; think not of leaving the side of the most sorrowful Virgin Mother of Jesus, as if thou couldst no longer bear to look upon grief so intense, or to hear moans so piteous. Grieve with those who grieve, weep with those that weep, that so in the glory of the Resurrection thou mayest rejoice with them that rejoice.
O good and most loving Jesus, Mary did as
