Vigils Reading – Nativity of the BVM

THE NEW MOTHER

From a sermon by Blessed Guerric of Igny

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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… 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 way 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…he uttered the words: As the vine, I have brought

forth a pleasant odor.