Thus did the bruised body of our Divine Saviour reach the ground.
It was a most touching sight.

They all took the same precautions, the same care, as if they had feared to cause Jesus some suffering.
They seemed to have concentrated on the sacred body all the love and veneration which they had felt for their Saviour during his life.

The eyes of each were fixed upon the adorable body, and followed all its movements; and they were continually uplifting their hands towards Heaven, shedding tears, and expressing in every possible way the excess of their grief and anguish.

Yet they all remained perfectly calm, and even those who were so busily occupied about the sacred body broke silence but seldom, and, when obliged to make some necessary remark, did so in a low voice.

During the time that the nails were being forcible removed by blows of the hammer, the Blessed Virgin, Magdalen; and all those who had been present at the Crucifixion, felt each blow transfix their hearts.