Visions of St. Bridget X

Burial of Jesus

(Source: Revelations of St. Bridget by TAN Books available for purchase here.)

Consider now Our Sorrowful Mother's seventh sorrow, the burial of her Divine Son. The Blessed Virgin Mary, remember is fully human, she is without stain of sin, but human like you and I. Her lack of sin theologians state causes her grief to be more immense, not less.

We can fully relate to this sorrow - recall how people often are more torn and full of grief at the burial than during the funeral, of thier loved ones. The pain of loss seems to hit hardest at the moment of the final goodbye, as the widow, widower, children, etc., realise..."This is it, we will bury him now, he will be in the ground here and we will have to go. This is it."

I recall how at the burial of my grandfather, my grandmother by outward appearance was composed & coping well all during the wake and funeral. It wasn't until we were about to leave the graveside, after the priest had blessed the grave and said the prayers - she began to cry bitterly, and weeping she bent over her husband's casket, pressed her cheek to it and sobbed. That sorrowful time had come, so many years together and now, here at the cemetery - we part. I'm sure you have seen this, or experienced it yourself. Spend a moment and experience your Heavenly Mother's burial of her Son as she herself relates it to St. Bridget of Sweden. This revelation picks up just after the dead Jesus is laid in Mary's lap, she presses Him to her heart and washes His wounds with her own veil.

The Blessed Virgin Mary speaks: "...Mary Magdalen and the other holy women came, and many holy angels, like specks in the sunbeam, were present, paying reverence to thier Creator. What grief I then felt, no one can tell. For I was like a woman in childbirth, all of whose limbs after delivery are tremulous, who, though she can scarcely breathe for pain, yet rejoices inwardly as much as she can, because she knows that her child is born never to return to the misery from which he came. So, though I was incomparably sad for the death of my Son, yet as my Son was to die no more, but live forever, I rejoiced in soul, and so a certain gladness was mingled with my grief. I can truly say that when my Son was buried, there were in a manner two hearts in one tomb. Is it not said: "Where thy treasure is, there is thy heart"? So my thoughts and my heart were ever in the sepulcher of my Son."

Anyone who has buried a loved one can relate to this scene. If you have stood at the grave of a beloved one yet had faith and hope in thier salvation, perhaps you can also relate to Mary's "gladness mingled with grief". You are so very sad they are gone, yet you are glad they are without pain now, to die no more. Jesus and the Virgin Mary invite us all to join them at His burial scene. Come in spirit to the stone rolled in front of the tomb of Jesus, press your cheek to it and place your heart also beside your Lords'. Place there also all your cares and worries and ask Jesus for the gift of hope!

Prayer for a Recently Deceased Person

Absolve, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the soul of Thy servant N...,

from every bond of sin,that being raised in the glory of the resurrection,

he may be refreshed among the Saints and Elect.

Through Christ our Lord.

Amen+