{"id":3449,"date":"2008-12-08T08:30:22","date_gmt":"2008-12-08T08:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2008\/12\/ave-liber-incomprehensus\/"},"modified":"2008-12-08T08:30:22","modified_gmt":"2008-12-08T08:30:22","slug":"ave-liber-incomprehensus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2008\/12\/ave-liber-incomprehensus\/","title":{"rendered":"Ave, liber incomprehensus"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"1208expsicion-inmac-dogm-2004-RAFAES-98145614872.jpg\"<\/a><\/span>
\nAt Matins this morning I listened, enchanted, to Saint Epiphanius’ rapturous praises of the All-Holy Mother of God. The witness of Saint Epiphanius is precious: born in Palestine of Jewish parentage in about the year 310, he went to Egypt as a youth to pursue there his monastic vocation. In 367 he was called out of the desert to serve the Church as bishop of Constantia (Salamis) in Cyprus. Sensitive to the least whiff of heresy, he was ever ready to defend the Catholic Orthodox faith. He died whilst returning from Constantinople to Cyprus in 402. Listen to him praise Our Lady. What would happen, I wonder, if a priest were to preach today with such lyricism and holy passion?<\/em>
\nMore Beautiful than the Cherubim<\/strong>
\nWhat shall I say,
\nwhat praise shall I make of the glorious and holy Virgin?
\nShe surpasses all beings, God alone excepted;
\nshe is by nature more beautiful than the cherubim, the seraphim,
\nand the whole army of heaven;
\nneither heavenly nor earthly tongue are sufficient to praise her,
\nnot even that of the angels.
\nImmaculate Lily, Unfading Rose<\/strong>
\nRejoice! Thou full of grace, gate of the heavens;
\ncarried upward in his discourse,
\nthe author of the Canticle wrote of thee
\nwhen he exclaimed:
\nThou art a garden enclosed, my sister, my bride,
\na garden enclosed, a sealed fountain<\/em>.
\nThe Virgin is this immaculate lily,
\nthe unfading rose who engendered Christ.
\nO Holy Godbearer, immaculate ewe,
\nthou hast brought forth Christ the Lamb, the Word of thee incarnate!
\nEver-flowing Wellspring of Sweetness<\/strong>
\nImmense is the grace of this holy Virgin.
\nWherefore does Gabriel address her first with this greeting:
\nHail, full of grace<\/em>, shining heaven!
\nHail, full of grace<\/em>, adorned with numberless virtues!
\nHail, full of grace<\/em>, thou golden urn containing the heavenly manna!
\nHail, full of grace<\/em>, thou who quenchest those who thirst
\nfrom the ever-flowing wellspring of sweetness!
\nPurple Fit for Kings<\/strong>
\nHail, O most holy and immaculate Mother,
\nwho didst bring forth Christ, He who before thee is.
\nHail, O purple fit for kings, thou has clothed the King of heaven and earth!
\nHail, O book incomprehensible: thou hast displayed the Word, the Son of the Father,
\nfor all the world to read!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At Matins this morning I listened, enchanted, to Saint Epiphanius’ rapturous praises of the All-Holy Mother of God. The witness of Saint Epiphanius is precious: born in Palestine of Jewish parentage in about the year 310, he went to Egypt as a youth to pursue there his monastic vocation. In 367 he was called out <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advent-liturgy","category-blessed-virgin-mary"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paVypq-TD","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3449"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3449\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}