The Birthday of Mary Mother of God

The Birthday of Mary Mother of God
(The Hortus Conclusus : The Enclosed Garden)
“She is a garden enclosed, my sister, my promised bride, a garden enclosed, a sealed fountain...Fountain of the garden, well of living water, streams flowing down from Lebanon!
Beloved: awake, north wind, come, wind of the south! Breathe over my garden, to spread its sweet smell around. Let my love come into his garden,let him taste it’s most exquisite fruits.
Lover: I come into my garden, my sister my promised Bride...
Beloved: I sleep, but my heart is awake...”
Song of Songs taken from chapters 4 and 5
“O lovely sprout full of greening power
from the stem of Jesse,
what a great event is this:
As the eagle lifts its eyes
to the sun,
so the divine glance
fell on the most beautiful of women
When the Father from heaven,
O Virgin,
looked into your purity
and his Word became
flesh in you.
Your virginal heart was enlightened
in mystical ways by God’s mystery
and wondrous bloomed from you,
O Virgin, a bright flower.
Praise be to God the Father,
the Son and the Holy Spirit!
St Hildegard of Bingen Doctor of the Bride : The Church
“Behold the Father is his daughter’s son;
The bird that built the nest is
hatched therein.
Might feeble is and force
doth faintly creep...”
Holy Martyr St Robert Southwell
Happy Birthday dear Mary Mother of God and our Mother !
Fr Bill McNichols 8 September 2019