Ave Maria Meditations
Our Blessed Lady of Dolours here finds herself face-to-face with the Man of Sorrows (on His way to the Cross). The Mother gazes on the Face of her Son. What an aspect it bears! No one else could have recognized Jesus! His beautiful and radiant Face is obscured, soiled, and like that of a leper. The sight pierces the heart of the Blessed Virgin. She falls into the arms of the holy women who accompanying her.
On His side, Jesus has recognized His Mother; their eyes have met. Those two souls, already so closely united, have found in their common anguish a more intense and still stronger element of attraction; they have embraced, clinging together as though they had been fused into one, to offer one and the same Sacrifice, and to form but one and the same victim.
O Jesus! O, Mary! Admit me into the community of your sacrifice. May I contemplate you, may I love you, and may I imitate you. May I share in your sentiments and in your inmost feelings. May I never be separated from your trials and your sufferings here below, in order that I may merit to be united with you forever, and to see you face-to-face in eternity.
From the Manual of the Holy Face, Stations of the Cross
