On
the Saturday next following this first Conception, the Almighty wrought the
second Conception by creating the soul of his Mother and infusing it into the
body; and thus entered into the world that pure Creature, more holy, perfect
and agreeable to His eyes than all those He had created, or will create to the
end of the world, or through the eternities. God maintained a mysterious
correspondence in the execution of this work with that of creating all the rest
of the world in seven days, as is related in the book of Genesis. Then no doubt
He rested in truth, according to the figurative language of Scripture, since He
has now created the most perfect Creature of all, giving through it a beginning
to the work of the divine Word and to the Redemption of the human race. Thus
was this day (Dec. 8) a paschal feast for God and also for all creatures.
The age of St. Anne and St. Joachim when the Blessed Mary was conceived
(Anne 44 years, Joachim 66 years)
On
account of this Immaculate Conception of most holy Mary the Holy Spirit has
provided that Saturday be consecrated to the Virgin in the holy Church, since
that was the day on which She received the greatest benefit through the
creation of her soul and its union with its body without entailing sin or its
effects. The day of the Immaculate Conception, which the Church now celebrates,
is not the day of her first conception, when the body alone was conceived, but
it is the day of the second Conception or the infusion of her soul. Body and
soul, therefore, remained for nine months in the womb of holy Anne, which are
the days that intervene between the Conception to the Nativity of that Queen.
During the other seven days preceding the vivification of the inanimate body,
it was disposed and organized by the divine power, in order that this work
might correspond with the account that Moses gives of the Creation of all
things, comprising the formation of the whole world at its beginning. At the
instant of the creation and infusion of the soul in the most holy Mother, the
most blessed Trinity, repeated with greater affection of love the words,
recorded by Moses at that time concerning man: “Let us make Mary to our image and likeness to be our true Daughter
and Spouse and a Mother to the Onlybegotten of the Father.”
By
the force of this divine pronouncement and through the love with which it
issued from the mouth of Almighty, was created and infused into the body of
most holy Mary her most blessed Soul. At the same time She was filled with
grace and gifts above those of the highest seraphim of heaven, and there was
not a single instant in which She was found wanting or deprived of the light,
the friendship and love of the Creator, or in which She was touched by the
stain or darkness of original sin. On the contrary She was possessed of the
most perfect justice, superior to that of Adam and Eve in their first
formation. To Her was also conceded the most perfect use of the light of
reason, corresponding to the gifts of grace, which She had received Not for one
instant was She to remain idle, but to engage in works most admirable and
pleasing to her Maker.
At
the time of the infusion of the soul into the body of this heavenly Lady, the
Almighty desired that her mother, the holy Anne, should feel and recognize the
presence of the Divinity in a most exalted manner. She was filled with the Holy
Ghost and was moved interiorly with a joy and devotion altogether above the
ordinary. She was wrapped in exalted ecstasy, in which she was enlightened with
deep intelligences of the most hidden mysteries and praised the Lord with new canticles
of Joy. These effects lasted during all the rest of her life; but they were
greater during the nine months in which she bore in her womb the Treasure of
heaven. For during that time these benefits were more constantly renewed and
repeated with continual intelligences of the holy Scriptures and of their most
profound sacraments. O most fortunate woman! Let all the nations and
generations of the world extol thee and call thee blessed.
