Chapter 9.
And in those days, that is, at the time of her
first coming into Galilee, the angel Gabriel was sent to her by God, to
announce to her the conception of the Lord, and to explain to her the
manner and order of the conception. Accordingly, going in, he
filled the chamber where she was with a great light; and most
courteously saluting her, he said: Hail, Mary! O virgin
highly favoured by the Lord, virgin full of grace, the Lord is with
thee; blessed art thou above all women, blessed above all men that have
been hitherto born.1700
And the
virgin, who was already well acquainted with angelic faces, and was not
unused to the
light from
heaven, was neither
terrified by the vision of
the
angel, nor
astonished at the greatness of the
light, but only
perplexed by his words; and she began to consider of what
nature a
salutation so unusual could be, or what it could portend, or what end
it could have. And the
angel, divinely inspired, taking up this
thought, says:
Fear not,
Mary, as if anything contrary to thy
chastity were hid under this
salutation. For in choosing
chastity, thou hast found favour with the
Lord; and therefore thou, a
virgin, shalt conceive without
sin, and shalt bring forth a son.
He shall be great, because He shall rule from
sea to
sea, and from the
river even to the ends of the
earth;
1701
and He shall
be called the Son of the Most High, because He who is
born on
earth in
humiliation,
reigns in
heaven in exaltation; and the
Lord God will give
Him the
throne of His
father David, and He shall
reign in the
house of
Jacob for ever, and of His
kingdom there shall be no end;
1702
forasmuch as He is King of kings and
Lord
of lords,
1703
and His
throne
is from
everlasting to
everlasting. The
virgin did not doubt
these words of the
angel; but wishing to know the manner of it, she
answered: How can that come to pass? For while, according
to my
vow, I never know man, how can I bring forth without the addition
of man’s
seed? To this the
angel says: Think not,
Mary, that thou shalt conceive in the manner of
mankind: for
without any intercourse with man, thou, a
virgin, wilt conceive; thou,
a
virgin, wilt bring forth; thou, a
virgin, wilt
nurse: for the
Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the
power of the Most High shall
overshadow thee,
1704
without any of
the heats of
lust; and therefore that which shall be
born of thee shall
alone be holy, because it alone, being conceived and
born without
sin,
shall be called the Son of
God. Then
Mary stretched forth her
hands, and
raised her
eyes to
heaven, and said: Behold the
hand-
maiden of the Lord, for I am not worthy of the name of lady; let
it be to me according to thy word.
It will be long, and perhaps to some even tedious, if we
insert in this little work every thing which we read of as having
preceded or followed the Lord’s nativity: wherefore,
omitting those things which have been more fully written in the Gospel,
let us come to those which are held to be less worthy of being
narrated.
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
