This is wonderful! I love the first 8 sentences; there is so much there. I also especially love his meditation on Mary and John’s eyes meeting in mutual agony at the foot of the cross.
Thank you for a mini retreat!
"Woman" was an honorific form of address for ones mother. You can see that at the Wedding at Cana - "And Jesus saith to her: Woman, what is that to me and to thee? my hour is not yet come." John 2:4.
This is also true, by the way, of Scots Gaelic. A Highlander in the old days (and may still in the very few places where Gaelic is a first language) would address his mother as "a bhean" - "o woman". And that's exactly what Jesus says in the Gaelic Bible (I had to go upstairs and hunt it out - it's not on line - at least only the Gospel of Mark is on line. If you want to read John, you have to have a hard copy.)