So Our Lord and his Mother have shown us the way which, as nothing else can, puts the final seal on our homage and devotion – and that way is the acceptance, and the transformation of suffering, when it comes, by offering it in trustful love to God as an act of prayer, in union with his Son’s offering upon the Cross – a prayer for, perhaps, the conversion of sinners to him, for the relief of those in trouble or distress, certainly for our enemies and those who have done us harm. When applied like that, suffering benefits others and purifies oneself.

The gold and the incense we give to Our Blessed Lord by our obedience and self-dedication: the myrrh we can only give by sharing with him the suffering of which it is the symbol.