The Humility of the Virgin (III)

This is why the woman destined to conceive, and then give birth to the Holy of Holies, received the gift of virginity, in order to be holy in her body; to be holy in her soul also, she received in addition the gift of humility. Thus covered in the jewels of those virtues, resplendent with the double beauty of her body and her soul, known in the celestial court for her beauty and her charms, she attracted to her the gaze of the inhabitants of heaven, to the point of awaking desire in the heart of the King and to provoke the sending of the celestial messenger.

All this the evangelist tells us, when he shows an angel deputed by God to a virgin. By God, he writes, to a virgin, which means: by the Most High to the most humble, by the Lord to the handmaid, by the Creator to his creature. Such condescendence on the part of God! Such greatness in the virgin!