Blessed is the fruit of thy womb

Happy Easter, Aleteia readers! This week, in honor of Christ’s resurrection, we are bringing you photos of Holy week celebrations from around the world.

JUBA, South Sudan – APRIL 14, 2017: Actors perform the roles of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary during the Good Friday procession ahead of Easter. The moment pictured is that of Mary mourning the death of Jesus after he was taken from the cross, most commonly referred to as Pietà. This is the same moment that Michelangelo Buonarroti featured in his famous sculpture.

It is from Mary that the Church always learns the intimacy of Christ. Mary, who carried the small child of Bethlehem in her arms, teaches us to recognize the infinite humility of God. She who received the broken body of Jesus from the Cross shows the Church how to receive all those in this world whose lives have been wounded by violence and sin. From Mary, the Church learns the meaning of the power of love, as revealed by God in the life of his beloved Son: “he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their heart… he has lifted up the lowly” (Lk 1:51-52)… In entrusting his mother to the Apostle John, Jesus on the Cross invites his Church to learn from Mary the secret of the love that is victorious. (Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Collaboration of Men and Women in the Church and in the World; from the Offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, May 31, 2004, the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary)

According to the common teaching of the Doctors, it was God’s design that the Blessed Virgin Mary, apparently absent from the public life of Jesus, should assist him when he was dying nailed to the Cross. Mary suffered and as it were, nearly died with her suffering Son; for the salvation of mankind she renounced her mother’s rights and, as far as it depended on her, offered her Son to placate divine justice; so we may well say that she with Christ redeemed mankind. (Benedict XV: Letter, Inter sodalicia, May 22, 1918)

See more photos here.