She suffered, beyond all expression, for all that Jesus Christ suffered […]. What caused St. Lawrence to suffer was the burning gridiron upon which he lay; St. Stephen, the stones with which he was lapidated; the confessors of the Faith, the prisons, the racks, the fangs of wild beasts, the iron nails, hunger and thirst. However, the love they had for Jesus softened their sufferings.
For Mary, her tormentor is the very ardent love She has for the Saviour. […] Jesus’ exhaustion, His sufferings, His sorrows, the persecutions, the calumnies to which He is subjected, the ingratitude hurled against Him – She shared in all these to an unspeakable degree.
Yet what caused her the highest degree of suffering of all was the bloody immolation of her beloved Son. For her it was the martyrdom of martyrdoms.
