Because of the honored [place], where [even] the animals became chaste, how could [Mary], in whom Emmanuel dwelt, turn again toward marriage? Your own will exalted and sanctified you; your Lord added still more and adorned you. Noah’s animals were constrained by necessity, but you by your own will.
The Archangel gave you greeting as a pledge of holiness. Earth became a new heaven for Him when the Watchers descended and praised upon it. The sons of the Height encircled your dwelling because of the Son of the King who dwelt in you. Your dwelling below became like the heaven above through the Watchers.
Conjugal union is not defiling, nor is marriage unclean. Yet the wings of holiness are greater and lighter than marriage. Conjugal union, even when pure, belongs below and takes darkness for its refuge; chastity may show its whole face openly, clothed in light.
The Light rested in your dwelling and gave no place to marriage. For there were no works of [secrecy] within your camp, filled with [glory]. The shadows of weakness [and desire] vanished before the rays of [the Savior]. You became wholly spiritual through the Spirit, for you gave birth to the Spiritual One.
If we say, ‘She is a virgin,’ the pregnancy objects; if we say, ‘a married woman,’ the virgins cry out. If we say, ‘She is both virgin and married woman,’ one body will not let us speak so simply. It was wonder and amazement to the sincere, but trouble and torment to the scribes. Her virginity was hidden, while her breasts were full. Praises to Him above all.
Bodily desire, [that] movement found in the limbs, entered the womb of the world; your prayerful womb rejected it and removed the desire for such movement from your limbs. Your King poured holiness and purity into you in holy streams and consecrated you, so that whoever sees you may say, ‘How good is this woman who is praised!’
The One conceived within you impressed His glorious self like a seal upon your mind. Even after He was born, it was as though He still remained in you, for His radiance shone from your members; His splendor spread over your beauty, and His love anointed your whole being. You wove a garment for Him, but He spread His glory over all your senses.
How greatly Error has gone astray: it gathered bitterness from sweet blossoms. Like a creature that eats sweet fruits and turns them within itself into deadly venom, Error gathers from the pleasant Scriptures the poison of death for those who love it. The sons of the serpent offer a cup in which they have mixed the venom of the dragon.
Blessed are you, O Church, the bee for whom there are many sweet blossoms. You have one Nisan, the Egyptian, and a second Nisan, the Hebrew. From the holy blossoms you gather; from all of them you collect every help. Blessed are you, O Church: from the blossoms of your temple you have gathered sweetness.
The bee portrayed your type: it left the blossoms within its own land and flew a great distance when the scent of the sweet Blossom growing in Judea reached it. It came and with its ears gathered the sweetness it found and carried it away. Jerusalem cast away that sweetness, but the nations ran and gathered it.