Ave Maria!
Topic: The Thirteenth Station ” Jesus is taken down from the Cross
Quote:
Father Faber
??She remembers the midnight-hour when the Holy Ghost overshadowed her at Nazareth. Now it is the Eternal Son who is so strangely overshadowing His kneeling Mother.??
Father Faber, The Foot of the Cross, (Tan Books: 1978), 300.
Meditation:
Fr. Faber
??[Nicodemus and St. Joseph of Arimethea] approached our Blessed Lady with the profoundest
reverence and sympathy, told her what they had done, and asked her permission to take the Body down from the Cross. With hearts full of the tenderest devotion to the dolors of the Immaculate Mother, they drew nigh to the Cross, and made their preparations.??
Father Faber, The Foot of the Cross, (Tan Books: 1978), 298.
Ven Mary of Agreda
??In imitation of the Mother, Saint John with the pious women and the other faithful there present, also adored [the Crown of Thorns]; and this they also did with the nails, handing them first to most holy Mary for venerations and afterward showing their own reverence. Then the great Lady placed Herself on her knees and held the unfolded cloth in her outstretched arms ready to receive the dead body of her Son. In order to assist Joseph and Nicodemus, saint John supported the head, and Mary Magdalen the feet, of Christ and thus they tearfully and reverently placed Him into the arms of his sweetest Mother. This was to Her an event of mixed sorrow and consolation; for in seeing Him thus wounded and all his beauty disfigured beyond all children of men (Ps 44,3 ), the sorrows of her most chaste heart were again renewed; and in holding Him in her arms and at her breast, her incomparable sorrow was rejoiced and her love satiated by the possession of her Treasure.??
Mystical City of God, Volume III (Tan Books: 2006), 707.
Resolution:
Today I when I pray the Angelus, I will recall Our Lady’s acceptance at the Annunciation extended to every part of her life even to accepting into her arms the lifeless Body of the Son of God.
Marian Vow:
??She performed her task as an act of religion, with grave assiduity, not delaying over it to satisfy the grief of which her heart was full. The dead Body seemed as obedient to her as ever the Babe had been in Bethlehem, obedient in all things but one. She told St. Bridget that the extended arms could not be closed, and laid by His side, or crossed upon His breast. We ought rather to say they would not than they could not, be closed.??
Father Faber, The Foot of the Cross, (Tan Books: 1978), 301.
I give this resolution to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Thanks be to God for graces received.
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Mary Vitamin is a daily Email support for Marian mental prayer. Each day (Monday through Friday) members will receive a brief Marian quote with a corresponding Marian meditation and resolution. The Mary Vitamin is designed to make mental prayer a little simpler and bring Our Lady into your day in a systematic way.
Related site: Castle of the Immaculate
