bitterly, for the prophecy was indeed fulfilled, and the sword of grief
had indeed transfixed her heart; she again stopped her companions when
she reached the part of the Temple where she found Jesus teaching when
she lost him at the age of twelve, and she respectfully kissed the
ground on which he then stood. When the holy women had looked at every
place sanctified by the presence of Jesus, when they had wept and
prayed over them, they returned to Sion.

The Blessed Virgin did not leave the Temple without shedding many
tears, as she contemplated the state of desolation to which it was
reduced, an aspect of desolation which was rendered still more
depressing by the marked contrast it bore to the usual state of the
Temple on the festival day. Instead of songs and hymns of jubilee, a
mournful silence reigned throughout the vast edifice, and in place of
groups of joyful and devout worshippers, the eye wandered over a vast
and dreary solitude. Too truly, alas, did this change betoken the
fearful crime which had been perpetrated by the people of God, and she
remembered how Jesus had wept over the Temple, and said, 'Destroy the
Temple and in three days I will build it up again.' She thought over the
destruction of the Temple of the Body of Jesus which had been brought
about by his enemies, and she sighed with a longing desire for the
dawning of that third day when the words of eternal truth were to be
accomplished.

It was about daybreak when Mary and her companions reached the
Cenaculum, and they retired into the building which stood on its
right-hand side, while John and some of the disciples re-entered the
Cenaculum, where about twenty men, assembled around a lamp, were
occupied in prayer. Every now and then new-comers drew nigh to the
door, came in timidity, approached the group round the lamp, and