Verba Matris ad sponsam, qualiter in chorea sunt tria et quomodo per choream mundus iste designatur, et de tribulacione Matris in Christi morte.
The Dance of the World
The Mother of God warns the bride against the empty joys of the world, comparing worldly life to a hollow dance.
The Mother of God said to the bride, "My daughter, I want you to know that wherever there is a dance, there are three things: empty joy, loose talk, and useless labor." But when someone who is suffering or sad enters the house of the dance, their friend—caught up in the joy of the dance—sees them arrive sad and miserable, and immediately leaves the joy behind, steps away from the dance, and sympathizes with their suffering friend. This dance is the world itself, always spinning in anxiety—something that seems like joy to foolish people. In this world there are three things: empty joy, coarse talk, and useless labor, because everything a person works for, they leave behind. But anyone who is in this dance of the world should consider my labor and my sorrow, and sympathize with me—for I was set apart from all the world's joy—and they should separate themselves from the world.
The Five Spears of Sorrow
The Mother describes the five specific sorrows that pierced her heart during the Passion of her Son.
For at the death of my Son, I was like a woman whose heart was pierced by five spears. The first lance was his shameful and humiliating nakedness, for I saw my most chaste and powerful Son standing at the pillar, naked and with nothing to cover him. The second was the accusation brought against him. They accused him, calling him a traitor, a liar, and even a plotter—he whom I knew to be just and truthful, and who had never offended anyone, nor even wished to. The third lance for me was his crown of thorns, which pierced his most holy head so savagely that blood flowed down into his mouth, his beard, and his ears. The fourth lance was the lamentable voice on the cross, with which he cried out to the Father, saying: 'O Father, why have you forsaken me?' It was as if he meant to say, 'Father, there is no one to have mercy on me but you.' The fifth lance, which pierced my heart, was his most bitter death. For from every vein where his precious blood flowed, it is as if my heart were pierced by just as many spears. The veins of his hands and feet were indeed pierced, and the pain of those pierced nerves reached his heart inconsolably, and from his heart it traveled back to the nerves; and because his heart was so fresh and excellent—being formed of the finest nature—life and death struggled within him, and so his life was drawn out all the more bitterly amidst such suffering.
The Final Moments of the Passion
A vivid, contemplative account of the physical movements and final expiration of Christ on the cross.
As death drew near and his heart was breaking from the unbearable pain, all his limbs suddenly trembled, and his head, which had been resting back, lifted itself slightly. His closed eyes were half-opening, as if halfway. His mouth was opening the same way, and his bloodied tongue was visible. His fingers and arms, which had been somewhat contracted, were stretching out. But once his spirit had been given up, his head bowed toward his chest. His hands slipped down a little from the place of the wounds. His feet were bearing the greater weight.
Surrender and Compassion
The Mother recounts her own physical collapse and subsequent surrender to the divine will, inviting the reader to contemplate her sorrow.
Then my hands withered. My eyes grew dark, and my face turned as pale as a corpse. I couldn't hear a thing. I couldn't speak a word. My feet faltered, and I collapsed to the ground. But when I rose from the ground and saw my Son looking more wretched than a leper, I surrendered my entire will to Him. I knew that everything had happened according to His will and could not have occurred unless He allowed it, so I gave thanks to Him for everything. A certain joy was mixed with my sorrow, because I saw that He who never sinned had, out of such great love, chosen to suffer such things for sinners. Therefore, let everyone in the world consider what I was like at the death of my Son, and keep it always before their eyes!
Read the original Latin
Mater Dei loquebatur ad sponsam dicens: "Filia mea, volo te scire, quod, ubi est chorea, ibi sunt tria, scilicet inanis leticia, vox perfusa et labor superuacuus. Cum autem aliquis dolens vel tristis in domo choree intrauerit, tunc amicus eius, existens in illa choree leticia, videns amicum suum venientem tristem et mestum, statim dimissa leticia segregat se a chorea et condolet amico dolenti.
Chorea ista est mundus iste, qui semper voluitur sollicitudine, que hominibus stultis videtur esse leticia. In quo mundo sunt tria: inanis leticia, verba scurrilia, labor inutilis, quia omnia, per que homo laborat, relinquit post se. Qui autem est in hac mundi chorea, consideret laborem et dolorem meum et condoleat michi, que eram ab omni leticia mundi segregata, et segreget se a mundo. In morte namque filii mei eram sicut mulier, habens cor affixum quinque lanceis.
Prima enim lancea erat nuditas verecunda et vituperosa, quia videbam filium meum castissimum et potentissimum astare ad columpnam nudum et nichil operimenti habentem. Secunda erat accusacio eius. Nam accusabant eum, dicentes eum proditorem et mendacem et eciam insidiatorem, quem ego sciebam esse iustum et veracem nullumque offendisse vel voluisse offendere.
Tercia lancea michi erat spinea corona eius, que sic immaniter pupugit caput eius sanctissimum, ut sanguis deflueret in os eius et in barbam et in aures eius. Quarta lancea erat vox lamentabilis in cruce, qua clamabat ad Patrem dicens: 'O pater, quare me dereliquisti?' Ac si vellet dicere: 'Pater, non est, qui misereatur mei nisi tu.' Quinta lancea, que cor meum pertransibat, erat mors eius amarissima.
De quot enim venis sanguis eius exiuit preciosus, quasi tot lanceis cor meum perforatum est. Perforate sunt nempe vene manuum eius et pedum et dolor neruorum perforatorum accessit inconsolabiliter ad cor eius et de corde iterum ad neruos, et quia cor eius erat recentissimum et optimum, quia compaginatum de optima natura, propterea certabant inter se vita et mors, et sic amarius protrahebatur vita inter dolores.
Appropinquante autem morte cum pre intolerabili dolore rumperetur cor, tunc statim contremuerunt omnia membra eius, et caput, quod ad dorsum eius reclinabatur, eleuauit se modicum.
Oculi clausi semiaperiebantur, quasi ad medietatem. Os eius similiter aperiebatur et videbatur lingua eius sanguinolenta. Digiti et brachia, que erant quodammodo contracta, extendebantur. Tradito autem spiritu caput inclinabatur ad pectus. Manus de loco vulnerum modicum submiserunt se. Pedes sustentabant maius pondus.
Tunc aruerunt manus mee. Oculi obtenebrati sunt et facies palluit quasi mortui. Aures nichil audierunt. Os meum nichil potuit loqui. Pedes eciam mei nutauerunt, et tunc corpus meum cecidit ad terram. Surgens autem de terra cum viderem filium meum leproso despecciorem, posui voluntatem meam totam ad ipsum, sciens, quod secundum voluntatem eius omnia facta fuissent et non potuissent fieri nisi ipso permittente et regraciabar ei pro omnibus.
Leticiaque quedam mixta erat mesticie, quia videbam eum, qui numquam peccauit, ex tanta caritate voluisse talia pati pro peccatoribus. Ergo quicumque est in mundo, consideret, qualis ego eram in morte filii mei, et semper habeat pre oculis!"
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