Cross or at a distance, fell on their knees and entreated
forgiveness of Jesus, who turned his eyes compassionately upon them in
the midst of his sufferings. However, the darkness continued to
increase, and everyone excepting Mary and the most faithful among the
friends of Jesus left the Cross. Dismas then raised his head, and in a
tone of humility and hope said to Jesus, 'Lord, remember me when thou
shalt come into thy kingdom.' And Jesus made answer, 'Amen, I say to thee,
This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise.' Magdalen, Mary of Cleophas,
and John stood near the Cross of our Lord and looked at him, while the
Blessed Virgin, filled with intense feelings of motherly love,
entreated her Son to permit her to die with him; but he, casting a look
of ineffable tenderness upon her, turned to John and said, 'Woman, behold
thy son;' then he said to John, 'Behold thy mother.' John looked at his dying
Redeemer, and saluted this beloved mother (whom he henceforth
considered as his own) in the most respectful manner. The Blessed
Virgin was so overcome by grief at these words of Jesus that she almost
fainted, and was carried to a short distance from the Cross by the holy
women.

I do not know whether Jesus really pronounced these words, but I
felt interiorly that he gave Mary to John as a mother, and John to Mary
as a son. In similar visions a person is often conscious of things
which are not written, and words can only express a portion of them,
although to the individual to whom they are shown they are so clear as
not to require explanation. For this reason it did not appear to me in
the least surprising that Jesus should call the Blessed Virgin 'Woman,'
instead of 'Mother.' I felt that he intended to demonstrate that she was
that woman spoken of in Scripture who was to crush the head of the
serpent, and that then was the moment in which that promise was
accomplished in the death of her Son. I knew that Jesus, by giving her
as a mother to John, gave her also as a mother to all who believe in
him, who become children of God, and are not born of flesh and blood,
or of the will of man, but of God. Neither did it appear to me
surprising that the most pure, the most humble, and the most obedient
among women, who, when saluted by the angel as 'full of grace,' immediately
replied, 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to
thy word,' and in whose sacred womb the Word was instantly made flesh,--that
she, when inf