The Daughters of Jerusalem

Saint Luke - Chapter 23

Daughters of Jerusalem. J-J tissot

[27] Sequebatur autem illum multa turba populi et mulierum, quae plangebant et lamentabantur eum.
And there followed him a great multitude of people, and of women, who bewailed and lamented him.

[28] Conversus autem ad illas Jesus, dixit : Filiae Jerusalem, nolite flere super me, sed super vos ipsas flete et super filios vestros.
But Jesus turning to them, said: Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not over me; but weep for yourselves, and for your children.

[29] Quoniam ecce venient dies in quibus dicent : Beatae steriles, et ventres qui non genuerunt, et ubera quae non lactaverunt.
For behold, the days shall come, wherein they will say: Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that have not borne, and the paps that have not given suck.

[30] Tunc incipient dicere montibus : Cadite super nos; et collibus : Operite nos.
Then shall they begin to say to the mountains: Fall upon us; and to the hills: Cover us.

[31] Quia si in viridi ligno haec faciunt, in arido quid fiet?
For if in the green wood they do these things, what shall be done in the dry?

From The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by J-J Tissot (1897)

The procession has passed through the Gate of Judgment and now halts beyond it for the coming up of the rearguard, which has been delayed by the necessity of keeping back the crowds.  At the small gateway itself the pressure has become immense and the people are wedged together in dense masses; the procession itself, on the other hand, has now emerged from the narrow streets and the precautions against surprise must be redoubled, for the Governor is still anxious, there being always some fear of a revolt.  The many women who have followed at a distance are now able to approach Jesus, with others who happened just then to be in the neighbourhood of the Well of Amygdalum or of Hezekiah.  Their waving and sobs add yet more to the pathos of the scene of which the exhausted and tottering Victim is the central figure.  Jesus, availing Himself of the brief halt at the foot of Mount Golgotha, which He has soon to climb, turns to the weeping women and answers their compassionate outcry with a few solemn words which are His last exaltation before His death: "Weep not for me but for yourselves and for your children." There is now but one more effort to be made, and, still with the aid of Simon of Cyrene, Jesus resumes the painful march.  It is now about 12.30.

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam