Vigils Reading

Mother and Child6
from the writing of St Mechthild of Magdeburg

When the time had come, when other women are sad and move about with difficulty, Mary was agile and cheerful. And yet her body was quite swollen because she had within it the fully developed Son of God. Mary did not know in advance when God wanted to be born of her until she saw him in her lap on the road on that night in Bethlehem – in a strange town where she herself was a poor homeless guest. The almighty Father with his wisdom, the eternal Son with his human truth, the Holy Spirit with his delicate sweetness passes through the intact wall of Mary’s body with blissful ease and without any effort. It had happened just as quickly as when the sun in loving calm sends forth its light upon the sweet dew.

When Mary gazed at her fair child, she inclined her head to his face and said: “Welcome, my innocent Child and mighty Lord, all things are yours.” At the conception of our Lord, while his mother was expecting, at his birth, and while he was on the lap of his mother before being placed in the crib, the power of the Holy Trinity and the blissful celestial fire in Mary were so intense that the spirit of hell, which travels about the whole world and knows everything that happens to all things, was not able to approach closely enough to the land and place where Mary was to learn of the miraculous way the Child had gotten there.

Mary took a coarse blanket from Joseph’s saddle – one that the donkey had on his back under the saddle…The delicate virgin wrapped the hardy Savior in this blanket and laid him in the crib. Then he immediately began to cry like a newborn child. As long as babies are unable to speak, they never cry except to express a real need. This is just what our Lord did when, despite his noble nature, he was put to bed in a cowshed because of base sin. He wept for all humankind, hiding all his happiness and all his power. The virgin was sad, and the Child was hungry and cold.

Then the mother had to nurse her Son. This was his Father’s will and the Holy Spirit’s pleasure. In maternal love, with maidenly bearing, the virgin bent down to her afflicted child and offered him her youthful breast. Now hear of the marvel! The bright blossoming of her fair eyes, the spiritual beauty of her maidenly countenance, the sweetness flowing from her pure heart, and the delightful sparkle of her noble soul: these four things drew together according to the will of the Father, the need of the Son, and the delight of the Holy Spirit in her maidenly breast. And sweet milk flowed forth from her pure heart without any pain. The Child suckled like a human child and his mother rejoiced in a holy manner. The angels sang to God a hymn of praise. The shepherds came and found for all to see our true pledge of redemption in a crib belonging to another.

Then I asked Mary where Joseph was. She said: “He had gone into town and is buying us some small fish and plain bread.” Water is what they drank. Then I said: “Lady, you should be eating the very best bread and drinking the finest wine.” “No,” she said, “that is the food of rich people. We don’t have any of that in this poor life.