"Various lovers were present at the death of the Savior. Among them, those having the greatest love had the greatest sorrow..... But His sweet Mother, who loved him more than all others, was more than all others pierced through and through by the sword of sorrow. Her Son's sorrow at that time was a piercing sword that passed through the Mother's heart, for that Mother's heart was fastened, joined, and united to her Son in so perfect a union that nothing could wound the one without inflicting the keenest torture upon the other. When her maternal bosom was thus wounded with love, Mary not only sought no cure for its wound but loved that wound more than any cure and deeply guarded the shafts of sorrow she had received because of the love that had sped them into her heart. Continually she desired to die of them, because her Son died of them.
"For, as all the Holy Scriptures and all the learned say, He died amid the flames of charity, a perfect holocaust for all the sins of the world." (St. Francis de Sales, Treatise on the Love of God VII)
(This post is linked to Pay it Forward. I regret that I haven't learned how to put buttons in a blog post, but you can click here for the link.. and the button is in my sidebar)
