#jesuschrist — Public Fediverse posts

Quote of the day, 15 September: Blessed Marie-Eugène

You are dead, O Jesus, but your divinity remains alive. It followed your soul and remains in your body. O Jesus, fastened to the cross and dead, we adore you. […]

Who will receive him, if not the Virgin Mary, standing at the foot of the cross, who has sat down for a moment to receive his body upon her knees? As only a mother can, she examines this body that belongs to her. She does not count the wounds, but measures their depth; she searches out their places. How painful each one must have been! Those wounds of the face and head, that lance which pierced the heart… O Virgin Mary, what a painful examination!

And your feelings have remained unchanged. The word he spoke—“Behold your mother”—expanded and enlarged your heart. It placed within it a grace, a painful grace, for every birth comes through suffering. But it also placed within your soul and your heart a new love, extraordinarily enlarged, a love with no apparent object, reaching out to the whole world.

And this love urges you, O Virgin Mary, to accept, so to speak, in exchange for Jesus who has died—for the life of Jesus—the souls who are given to you: all souls, the whole Mystical Body. Henceforth, the life of the Mystical Body will spring from Jesus, but through you.

O Virgin Mary, I thank you for accepting. I congratulate you on the new maternal grace you have received. You are my mother; you are our mother. We almost forget the body of Jesus as we look upon you, share in your suffering, and above all share in your maternal triumph.

How great you are, O Virgin Mary, almost as great, humanly speaking, as your Son Jesus. The executioners and Satan, blundering and unaware, intoxicated by their triumph, forget you. They have killed the Son and leave the Mother: the fruitful Mother, the mother of our souls, the Mother of the Church.

We hail you, O Virgin Mary, in your triumph. We hail you, Mother of Life, Our Lady of Life. Grant that we may truly be your children, living as your Son lives, living as you live.

Blessed Marie-Eugène of the Child Jesus

Meditations for the Way of the Cross
XIII, Jesus is taken down from the cross
Secular Institute Our Lady of Life, 27 March 1964

Marie-Eugène de l’Enfant-Jésus 1986, Jésus, Contemplation du Mystère Pascal, Editions du Carmel, Toulouse.

Translation from the French text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

Featured image: Ivan Meštrović’s Descent from the Cross, sculpted between 1942 and 1946, captures the moment when Christ’s body is gently lowered into the arms of His Mother. The sculpture is located in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, where it continues to invite silent meditation on the mystery of Good Friday. Image credit: By Nheyob / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)