The Mother and the Face of the Son

For an explanation of the Port Arthur Icon of the Triumph of the Theotokos, go here.
The Virgin Mary is she who more than any other contemplated God
in the human Face of Jesus.
She saw Him as a newborn when, wrapped in swaddling clothes,
He was placed in a manger;
she saw Him when, just after his death,
they took Him down from the cross,
wrapped Him in linen and placed Him in the sepulcher.
Inside her was impressed the image of her martyred Son;
but this image was then transfigured in the light of the Resurrection.
Thus in Mary’s heart was carried the mystery of the Face of Christ,
a mystery of death and of glory.
From her we can always learn how to look upon Jesus
with a gaze of love and of faith,
to recognize in that human countenance, the Face of God.
Pope Benedict XVI,
At the Regina Caeli, 2 May 2010