The Compassion of the Blessed Virgin (I)

She is the Eve of the new Covenant, the mother shared by all believers; yet this cost Mary the death of her first-born Son. She had but to join the eternal Father, with whom she gave her consent for their Son to be nailed to the cross. This is why Providence summoned her to the foot of the cross. She came here to sacrifice her own true Son; that He might die, so that man might live. And, here, she came to bear new children: "Woman", said Jesus, "behold your son." How painful were those birth pangs! What precious life she bore! What must her feelings have been on hearing the final dying words of her Son! No, you may be sure that of all the emotions that assailed her soul, without question this was the most painful.