Nativity of B. V. M.

A reading from a sermon for Our Lady’s Birthday

 by Blessed Guerric of Igny (CF 32:192-193)

As the vine I have brought forth a pleasant odor. Today we celebrate the birthday of the blessed Virgin Mother from whom the Life of all things took his birth. Today is the birthday of that Virgin from whom the Savior of all men willed to be born in order that he might give to all who were born to death the power to be reborn to life. Today is the birthday of that new Mother who has destroyed the curse brought by the first mother’ so that all those who through the fault of the first had been born under the yoke of eternal condemnation might instead, through her, inherit a blessing. She is indeed the new Mother, for she has brought new life to her children already hardening with age and has healed the defect of both inborn and acquired senility. Yes indeed. She is the new Mother, who by an unheard of miracle has given birth in such a way that, becoming a mother, she has not ceased to be a Virgin. And she has given birth to the Child who created all things, even the Mother herself.

It is indeed a wonderful new thing, this fruitful virginity, but far more wonderful is the novelty of the Child born of it. No one who admits that the Child was God, finds any difficulty in believing his Mother remained a Virgin. His birth in no wise could injure the physical integrity of his Mother, this Child who went about making even the diseased whole. Nor could the reality of the body he assumed be thought to limit the power of the Creator as if he could not retain for himself what he gives to many of his creatures. For you find not a few creatures that are born without any harm to the integrity of the parents. In their own way all these bear witness to their Creator’s own immaculate birth.

But the Mother herself, who was quite aware of the mystery surrounding her, has spoken and taught us how and what she brought forth. She speaks however not in contemporary or recent arguments but in the ancient oracles of prophecy, because, as the Apostle Peter tells us, the word of prophecy is a stronger witness than miracles. Indeed what is less open to deceit or suspect of falsity than the testimony from heaven about one not yet born? Long before her birth therefore the Spirit, who would later make his abode in her, borrowed Mary’s voice to defend both the divinity of the Child and the integrity of the Mother – all his own handiwork  – against the blasphemies of unbelievers. In her person, if we are to follow a common opinion, he uttered the words you have just heard: As the vine, I have brought forth a pleasant odor

In their context, these words must be applied to the Person of Wisdom himself, that is, the Son. But you know quite well from the rules of Sacred Scripture that this does not mean they cannot be applied also to the Mother, like so many other passages. You know too that there is other evidence, enough, and more than enough, bearing on this question, which is more familiar to you and much clearer than this. But you must not be cheated in your expectations of what today’s lesson can teach us.