from a sermon by Saint Bernard, abbot.
This feast was established by Saint Pius V. We are all invited to meditate upon the
mysteries of Christ, following the example of the Blessed Virgin Mary who was
so singularly associated with the incarnation, passion and glorious
resurrection of the Son of God.
The child to be
born of you will be called holy, the Son of God, the fountain of wisdom, the
Word of the Father on high. Through you,
blessed Virgin, this Word will become flesh, so that even though, as he
says: I am in the Father and the Father is in me, it is still true for
him to say, “I came forth from God and am here.”
In the beginning was the Word. The spring was gushing forth yet still
within himself. Indeed, the Word was
with God, truly dwelling in inaccessible light.
And the Lord said from the beginning: I think thoughts of peace and not of
affliction. Yet your thought was
locked within you, and whatever you thought, we did not now; for who knew the
mind of the Lord, or who was his counselor?
And so the idea of
peace came down to do the work of peace” The
Word was made flesh and even now dwells
among us. It is by faith that he
dwells in our hearts, in our memory, our intellect and penetrates even into our
imagination. What concept could man have
of God if he did not first fashion an image of him in his heart? By nature incomprehensible and inaccessible,
he was invisible and unthinkable, but now he wished to be understood, to be
seen and thought of.
But how, you ask,
was this don’t? He lay in a manger and
rested on a virgin’s breast, preached on a mountain, and spent the night in
prayer. He hung on a cross, grew pale in
death, and roamed free among the dead and ruled over those in hell. He rose again on the third day, and showed
the apostles the wounds of the nails, the signs of victory; and finally in
their presence he ascended to the sanctuary of heaven.
How can we not
contemplate this story in truth, piety and holiness? It is wise to meditate on these truths, and I
have thought it right to recall the abundant sweetness, given by the fruits of
this priestly root; and Mary, drawing abundantly from heaven, has caused this
sweetness to overflow for us.
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