Mary under the foot of the Cross

Magdalene loves Our Lady of Sorrows because Mary through her personal experience is able to understand the sufferings, the needs and the fragility of every person. She was the Sorrowful Virgin Mary who was constituted Mother of Charity at the foot of the Cross, when at the words of her dying Divine Son on the Cross, she gathered all of us, sinners though we are, to her heart.  It seems to us that it is important to stress a circumstance connecting devotions to Christ to devotion to Mary, which protects Magdalene’s Marian devotion, from possible sentimental or formalistic deviations and to fix it in the context of devotion to Christ according to the genuine sentiment of the Church.

Contemplating the Virgin Mother at the foot of the Cross, in total communion of feeling and will with her Son, Magdalene discovers that every act of Our Lady is a gift of self to the will of the Heavenly Father and Magdalene sees clearly that it must be her own constant attitude of offering too, an imitation of that great heart who on Calvary offered the entire life of her Son for souls.

The lives of the saints are not limited to their earthly biographies but also include their being and working in God after death. In the saints one thing becomes clear - those who draw near to God do not withdraw from men, but rather become truly close to them. In no one do we see this more clearly than in Mary. The words addressed by the Crucified Lord to his disciple - to John and through him to all disciples of Jesus: “Behold, your mother!” (Jn. 19:27) are fulfilled anew in every generation. Mary has truly become the Mother of all believers. Men and women of every time and place have recourse to her motherly kindness and her virginal purity and grace, in all their needs and aspirations, their joys and sorrows, their moments of loneliness and their common endeavors.

The depth of Christ’s Love is caught in this gaze, and the abundance of His Mercy is poured out as we see the spiritual reality of His precious Blood and Water becoming the stream of our salvation and giving birth to the Church and the Sacraments. Mary, like the stream, becomes a conduit of God’s grace and mercy through her union with Christ in His ultimate offering of Himself on the Cross.  Like Mary we are called to become vessels of God’s grace and mercy for others. Mary’s role is significant in our mission to make known God’s Merciful Love. As her own maternal Heart was expanded by the sword of sorrows at the crucifixion, so   our    hearts are expanded to embrace the world through our life of prayer and penance in union with Jesus and Mary.  In a special way, we are with Mary at the foot of the cross at each Eucharist, offering and being offered with Jesus for the salvation of the world (Catholic Catechism 1370).  In Mary’s Heart, we experience the loving care of our Mother, trust with confidence in her advocacy, and receive the holy wisdom which always shows us the way to Divine Love, incarnate in Her Son.  Our Mother and advocate teach us the true meaning of our vocation: to be contemplative penitents for love of God and for the world.

Christ Crucified -“Inspice et fac Secundum Exemplar”

Christ Crucified is the model that captured the heart of Magdalene of Canossa. For her, Jesus hanging on the cross was the ultimate expression of the greatest love. That is why, she said that we are called to imitate and do the example of Christ Crucified (inspice et fac secundum exemplar). Every time Magdalene of Canossa attended the Eucharistic celebration, she would also contemplate to the Christ Crucified. She even experienced spiritual ecstacy or deep/mystical experiences with the Lord every communion.

 “Inspice et fac secundum exemplar” literally means “do and follow according to the example”. The word “example” is basically pointed to Jesus on the Cross. We all knew that the sacrificial action of Jesus on the cross was because of his obedience to the will of the Father and for his greater love for the humanity. Jesus Passion, Death, and in three days his Resurrection was not an ordinary event of his life. It happened with a purpose. That is why it’s called sacrificial, unconditional, greatest, and super-abundant love as what Magdalene of Canossa called it because it happened with so much love. If you are in love, you will do anything for your loved one. That is what Jesus did on the cross. That is also what Magdalene of Canossa wanted to every one of us. Not really to hang ourselves on the cross but to imitate the love of Jesus for all the humanity even to the point of letting himself be crucified on the cross. Magdalene is in love, before her eyes she has always Jesus Christ Crucified who is the divine source of every human love. The mental vision and the ecstatic contemplation of this mystery of human - divine Charity lived out in indescribable suffering, spurs Magdalene to relive Christ’s interior attitude in her own life. This means she must consume herself for Him by serving Him in those who are in dire need of bread and love.

In her writings and in her life, Magdalene evidently presented to us that we can only do things clearly when we begin to contemplate the suffering Christ and it moves us to do the same. Magdalene invites us to take the Cross of Christ as our own Cross. It is evident that her action was driven by the greater love of Christ Crucified. That was her purpose - to see the example of Jesus Crucified and follow his action. She was so clear about it, that even to the point of giving up her status and comfort in life for the sake of Christ Crucified. That is an invitation for us in our time we have to see the suffering Christ in the life of the poor the youths and the little ones in our society, and make a concrete action to response to their needs. We need to develop a spirituality that enables us to discern God’s calling at every moment and to respond in service to God in and at all times. Magdalene’s love for Eucharist, contemplation to Christ Crucified and devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows inspired her to create the branches of Charity. Magdalene loves the Crucified Christ because Christ on the cross is the only great model to look up to. She loves charity, directed first of all towards those who are most in need or are closest to her, as this is the only tangible way for sharing God’s love for us. In all her life, there has always been a firm and fundamental point of reference - Christ Crucified, a God who humbled himself, offering himself as a victim for the love of humanity.


The story of Magdalene is the story of a love that is ever more intense for Jesus on the Cross, poor and stripped of all except the love that spurred him to such great sacrifice. The response that Magdalene found ever more necessary is the choice of poverty and of the poor, the apostolic witness of the immense charity of God through charity towards the weakest brothers and   sisters, the self-emptying so as to become an instrument God’s love, making him known to those who do not know him, so that they can give him glory and not offend him through sin. Charity does not know of any limit or country other than those that lead from the imperfect exercise of Charity on earth to the perfect exercise of Charity in Heaven.