Fourteenth Day
The third sorrow that our blessed Mother endured was the loss of the Child Jesus for three days. According to the Law, the Jews living in the neighborhood of the holy city had to make a pilgrimage three times a year, in order to celebrate the great feasts. They had to go on the feast of the Pasch, which was instituted to commemorate the deliverance from the bondage of Egypt; the second feast was that of the weeks, corresponding to our Pentecost, and the third feast was the feast of the tabernacles, where the devout of the nation thanked God for all the mercies shown them during the year. It was at one of these feasts of the Passover, or Pasch, that Jesus, Mary, and Joseph journeyed to Jerusalem. The Pasch must have been a feast of peculiar significance to the members of the Holy Family, for they knew what it really meant to them. There was to come a Pasch at which the principal actor of the feast would be Jesus, Our Lord. He certainly had that last Passover before His mind, and no doubt St. Joseph was also informed of the future. Mary, certainly, could not be ignorant of that great event in the future life of her divine Son.
Prayer.
O Heart of Mary, I offer, etc., etc.