#holy cards

Mulier, ecce filius tuus… Ecce Mater tua. Woman, behold thy son… Behold thy mother.

All antiquity asserts that St. John was ever a virgin, and specially on this account he was given as a son to Mary, and honored in being made to occupy the place of Jesus Christ; on which account the holy Church sings, “To him a virgin He commended his Virgin Mother.” And from the moment of the Lord’s death, as it is written, St. John received Mary into his own house, and assisted and obeyed her throughout her life, as if she had been his own mother.

Jesus said to her, Woman, behold thy son! It is doubted by none that this woman was the Blessed Virgin Mary, who, by means of her Son, would crush the head of Satan. Naturally was Mary the enemy of the serpent, because Lucifer was haughty, ungrateful, and disobedient, while she was humble, grateful, and obedient. It is said, She shall crush thy head, because Mary, by means of her Son, beat down the pride of Lucifer.

God said to the serpent, I will put enmities between- thy seed and the woman. This shows that after the fall of man, through sin, notwithstanding all that would be done by the redemption of Jesus Christ, there would be two families and two posterities in the world, the seed of Satan signifying the family of sinners, his children corrupted by him, and the seed of Mary signifying the holy family, which includes all the just, with their head Jesus Christ. Hence Mary was destined to be the mother both of the head and of the members, namely, the faithful. Therefore, St. John was not called John, but the disciple beloved by the Lord, that we might understand that Mary is the mother of every good Christian who is beloved by Jesus Christ, and in whom Jesus Christ lives by his Spirit.

The pain which the Holy Virgin endured in the Passion of her Son exceeded all the pains which a human heart can endure; but the grief of Mary was not a barren grief, like that of other mothers who behold the sufferings of their children; it was a fruitful grief, since through the merits of her so great grief, and through her love (according to the opinion of St. Augustine), as she was the natural mother of our head Jesus Christ,’ so she then became the spiritual mother of us who are his faithful members, in co-operating with him by her love in causing us to be born, and to be the children of the Church.

ACT OF REPARATION FOR ALL THE OUTRAGES WHICH JESUS CHRIST HAS SUFFERED IN HIS HOLY FACE 

I adore Thee, and I praise Thee, O m y divine Jesus, Son of the living God, for all the outrages Thou hast endured for me, who am the most miserable of Thy creatures, in all the sacred members of Thy body, but especially in the most noble part of Thyself, that is to say, in Thy Face. I salute Thee, amiable Face, wounded with blows and scourges, soiled with spittle and disfigured by the evil treatment which the impious Jews caused Thee to suffer. I salute you, O lovely eyes! all bathed in the tears you have shed for our salvation. I salute you, sacred ears, tormented by an infinity of blasphemies, injuries and shameful mockings. I salute you, O holy mouth! filled with grace and sweetness towards sinners, and made to drink of vinegar and gall by the monstrous ingratitude of those whom Thou hadst chosen to be Thy people. In reparation for all these ignominies, I offer Thee all the homage which has been rendered Thee in the holy place where Thou hast willed to be honoured by the special devotion to which I unite myself with my whole heart. Amen.

It is enough to say, that by such a sight of Jesus scourged, Pilate hoped to be allowed by the Jews to exempt him from death, when he showed him to the people from the balcony, saying, Behold the Man.

The Crowning with Thorns.

Behold how the soldiers strip him again; and, treating him as a mock king, place upon him a purple garment, which was nothing else but a ragged cloak, one of those that were worn by the Roman soldiers, and called a chlamys; in his hand they place a reed to represent a sceptre, and upon his head a bundle of thorns to represent a crown.

The divine Mother revealed to the same St. Bridget that the crown of thorns surrounded the whole sacred head of her Son, as low down as the middle of his forehead; and that the thorns were driven in with such violence that the blood gushed out in streams over all his countenance, so that the whole face of Jesus Christ appeared covered with blood.

While the gentle Lamb let himself be tormented according to their will, without speaking a word, without crying out; he very often closed his eyes, and uttered piercing sighs, like those of one about to die (as revealed to Blessed Agatha of the Cross). This torture, besides being in itself most acute was accompanied by blows and spitting, and by the mockings of the soldiers. It was also that torture of his Passion which lasted the longest, as Jesus suffered from the thorns up to his death, remaining, as they did, fixed in his head. Every time that the thorns on his head were touched, the anguish was renewed afresh.

When those barbarians had placed upon the head of Jesus that crown of torture, it was not enough for them to press it down as forcibly as they could with their hands, but they took a reed to answer the purpose of a hammer, that so they might make the thorns penetrate the more deeply. They then began to turn him into derision, as if he had been a mock king; first of all saluting him on their bended knee as King of the Jews; and then, rising up, they spit into his face, and buffeted him with shouts and jests of scorn. Ah, my Jesus, to what art Thou reduced!

O my Jesus! what thorns have I added to this crown with my sinful thoughts to which I have consented! I would I could die with grief! Pardon me, through the merit of this grief, which Thou didst then accept in order to pardon me. O my Lord, thus bruised and thus despised! Thou hast laden Thyself with all these pains and mockeries in order to move me to have compassion upon Thee, that, at least through compassion, I may love Thee, and no more displease Thee. It is enough, O my Jesus; cease to suffer more: I am convinced of the love that Thou bearest to me, and I love Thee with all my heart. But now I see that it is not enough for Thee; Thou art not satisfied with thorns, until Thou findest Thyself dead with anguish upon the cross. O goodness! O infinite love! Miserable is the heart that loves Thee not.

My soul is sorrowful even unto death. My Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from me. Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.

He suffered pure pain without any admixture of consolation. St. Thomas Aquinas

In that same night, then, when men were thinking of preparing torments and death for Jesus, our beloved Redeemer thought of leaving them himself in the Blessed Sacrament; giving us thereby to understand that his love was so great that, instead of being cooled by so many injuries, it was then more than ever yearning towards us.

O love of my soul, most Holy Sacrament; oh that I could always remember Thee, to forget everything else, and that I could love Thee alone without interruption and without reserve!

St. Alphonsus Liguori

Devotional statue of the Blessed Virgin, festooned with Rosaries, santini, and ex votos. Norcia, Umbria, August 2013.