Quote/s of the Day – 8 December – Feast of the Immaculate Conception and “The Month of the Divine Infant and the Immaculate Conception”
“Mary is the new Tree of Life,
who, instead of the bitter fruit picked by Eve,
gives to mankind that Sweet Fruit
on which the whole world is fed.”
St Ephrem (306-373)
Father and Doctor of the Church
(Marian hymn)
“The very fact
that God has elected her,
proves, that none was ever
holier than Mary;
if any stain had disfigured her soul,
if any other virgin
had been purer and holier,
God would have selected her
and rejected Mary.”
St Jacob of Sarug (c 451-521)
Bishop, Theologian, Poet, Writer
“Today humanity, in all the radiance
of her Immaculate nobility,
receives its ancient beauty.
The shame of sin
had darkened the splendour
and attraction of human nature
but when the Mother
of the Fair One par excellence,
is born, this nature again,
regains in her person,
its ancient privileges
and is fashioned according to a perfect model,
truly worthy of God….
The reform of our nature begins today
and the aged world,
subjected to a wholly divine transformation,
receives the first fruits of the second creation.”
St Andrew of Crete (c 650-c 740)
Bishop, Theologian, Hymnist
“He Who is Infinite, Limitless,
came to dwell in your womb;
God, the Child Jesus,
was nourished by your milk.
You are the ever virginal
Doorway of God;
your hands hold your God;
your lap is a throne raised up above the Cherubim…
You are the wedding chamber of the Spirit,
the “city of the living God,
gladdened by the runlets of the stream”
that is to say, the waves of the Spirit’s gifts.
You are “all fair, the Beloved” of God.”
St John Damascene (675-749)
Father and Doctor of the Church
(Homily on the Nativity of the Virgin, # 9 ; SC 80
AnaStpaul 