The Blessed Virgin, Holy in the Womb of St. Anne
September 3, O Ignis
| ANT. O Ignis effulgens et inextinguibilis! Ignis inflammans et illuminans! Ignis divinæ caritatis, qui in utero lates beatissimæ Annæ! Veni, appare nobis et tuo felicissimo aspectu mentes nostræ illuminentur, et corda nostra in amore Dei accendantur. | ANT. O radiant and inextinguishable Fire! Fire inflaming and illuminating! Fire of divine charity, hidden in the womb of blessed Anne! Come, appear to us and illumine our minds with thy most blessed countenance, and set our hearts aflame in the love of God. |
| ℣. Numquid cognoscentur, Domine, in tenebris mirabilia tua? ℟. Et justitia tua in terra oblivionis? |
℣. Shall those in darkness know Thy wonders, O Lord? ℟. Or Thy justice in land of oblivion? |
| Oremus. Præsta, quæsumus, Omnipotens Deus, ut qui Beatam Virginem Mariam prius sanctam quam natam colimus, ab omnibus, ipsa intercedente, peccatorum vinculis absoluti, vitam promereamus æternam. Per Christum Dominum Nostrum. Amen. |
Let us pray. Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that we who hold in veneration that the Virgin Mary was holy before she was born may, absolved from all the chains of sin at her intercession, gain life eternal. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. |
The Burning Bush
Today we marvel at the holiness that the Blessed Virgin Mary already had in the womb of St. Anne. Each year, on the first of January, the feast of the Circumcision, the Church sings to the Blessed Virgin Mary the antiphon Rubum, quem viderat Moyses: “In the bush which Moses saw unconsumed, we recognize the preservation of thy glorious virginity: holy Mother of God, intercede for us.” The fire is the fire of the Holy Spirit, that same fire that descended upon the Apostles on Pentecost. The Church in this antiphon sees the Blessed Virgin Mary as totally inflamed with a fire that preserves rather than consumes. It was this fire of love that preserved her in entire virginity, a virginity that St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face defines as a “profound silence from all cares of this earth, not only from useless cares but from all cares… [It is to] think only of the Spouse” (Letter to Celine, October 14, 1890). The Blessed Virgin is the Virgin because she was all flame, and there was nothing in her than was not ignited by the flame of divine charity, the flame that is the Holy Ghost.
It was already in the womb of Saint Anne that the Blessed Virgin was made all holy and set aflame with the love that would so preserve her in a “profound silence from all cares” that, for her whole life, and for all eternity, she would think of nothing outside the God Who would become a Bridegroom in her womb and espouse to Himself human nature, forming from among mankind a Church to be the spotless bride of the spotless Bridegroom.
The Prayer of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity
In her famous prayer to the Most Blessed Trinity, “O my God, Trinity Whom I adore,” St. Elizabeth of the Trinity speaks thus to the Holy Spirit.
O consuming Fire, Spirit of Love, “come upon me,” and create in my soul a kind of incarnation of the Word: that I may be another humanity for Him in which He can renew His whole Mystery.
This short prayer (which can be fittingly recited every day, or even made into a ceaseless prayer of the heart) tells us eloquently why the Blessed Virgin Mary was all flame. What St. Elizabeth of the Trinity prayed here had already been perfectly accomplished — modeled, in fact — in the life that was (and is) lived by the Blessed Virgin. It was she whom the Holy Spirit came upon; she, the one in whom the Word became flesh, was the first to be formed in His mould such that she conceived Him first in her heart before she conceived Him in her womb; she was like another humanity in which Jesus worked all His mysteries. All through Jesus’ life, He, the New Adam, did not operate alone, but Mary, the New Eve, was ever in the background.
Yet all of this began at “the first instance of her conception,” when, “by a singular privilege and grace granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, [she] was preserved free from all stain of original sin” (Dogmatic Definition of the Immaculate Conception). The Blessed Virgin Mary was chosen at the instant she was formed in the womb of Saint Anne to be holy and just before God all the days of her life, to be filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb, to be all flame, to participate so completely in the fire of the Holy Spirit that she would merit to be called the Spouse of the Spirit.
