[Meditationes seu Contemplationes devotissimae]

death. O true son, you were to me a father, you were to me a mother, you were to me a spouse, you were to me a son, you were to me all things. Now, widowed of the father of my eyes, desolate of my spouse, losing all my offspring, I lose everything. O son, what shall I do? Woe is me, woe is me, son, I do not know what I shall do, where I shall go, my dearest, where shall I turn myself, my dearest?" And many words of this kind, full of sorrows, she spoke in secret.

Concerning the descent of Christ into hell and the rescue of those who were sitting in darkness and the shadow of death

O grace of your dignity, good Jesus. You could have, by the sole command of your will, without descending to the lower regions, rescued those who were held captive there in darkness. But drawn by your piety and your ineffable charity, you deigned to descend so that you might preside with your splendid light over those who for long times had been sitting in darkness and the shadow of death, just as in your nativity the light of your clarity shone upon those who were on earth. You, so that you might also demonstrate your power among the lower regions. Whence John in the Apocalypse describes an angel

descending from heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. Who, apprehending the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, bound them for many years. Then, as the ancient enemy of the human race was already conquered by your death and, once the iron gates of hell were broken, you would rescue his captives from the chains of damnation by your power, bound as was commanded. Consider, devout, faithful soul, how Christ, descending from the depth of the lower regions, already the limit of darkness, as if you assumed human nature in yourself, susceptible, in which, by sustaining death, you paid the price of our redemption to God the Father for us most sufficiently. Truly, your passion, good Jesus, was our ultimate refuge, a singular remedy when wisdom was failing, justice was not sufficient, the merits were succumbing—that helped. This mode of redemption, plainly, good Jesus, which you chose to appease God, was most congruent, most efficacious for the avaricious disease to draw the human race, most prudent to purge the enemy of the human race. O immense charity of God. God clearly commended his charity in us, because when we were enemies, Christ died for us. O what an undue mercy.