“There are two kinds of souls in the world; those who hide from God and those from whom God hides.  But when God hides, He hides in order that he might be sought the more, as if to draw out a deeper love.  During the three days when the divine Child was lost, the Blessed Mother became the mother of sinners.  The essence of sin is the loss of God, and Mary lost God, not spiritually, but physically.  During those three days, she came to know something of the solitariness of the sinner, the loneliness of the guilty, and the aloneness of the frustrated.  Her divine Son, 21 years later, would feel it for Himself on the cross, when He would ask why God had abandoned Him.  Let no sinner ever despair of Divine mercy, because Mary understands the tortures of the heart, but above all, because she knows where to find Christ.  She also knows how to bring the sinner to her Divine Son.  As the Madonna of the Empty Arms, she awaits your embrace.”  Archbishop Fulton Sheen (The Fifteen Mysteries)