Beauty and the Church

Hanc imitamini, filiae, cui pulchre convenit illud quod de Ecclesia prophetatum est: Speciosi facti sunt gressus tui calceamentis, filia Aminadab; eo quod speciose Ecclesia Evangelii praedicatione processit. Speciose procedit anima, quae corpore velut calcamente utitur; ut quo velit, suum possit sine impedimento ullo circumferre vestigium. In hoc calceamento speciose processit Maria, quae sine ulla commixtione corporeae consuetudinis auctorem salutis Virgo generavit. Unde egregie Joannes ait: Non sum dignus solvere corrigiam calceamentorum ejus,  id est, non sum dignus Incarnationis mysterium comprehendere angustiis mentis humanae, atque inopis vilitate sermonis absolvere. Unde et Esaias dicit: Generationem ejus quis ennarrabit?  Speciosi ergo gressus vel Mariae vel Ecclesiae; quoniam speciosi pedes evangelizantium. Quam pulchra etiam illa quae in figura Ecclesiae de Maria prophetata sunt; si tamen non membra corporis, sed mysteria generationis ejus intendas! Dicitur enim ad eam: Moduli femorum tuorum similes torquibus, operi manuum artificis. Umbilicus tuus crater tornatilis non deficiens mixto. Venter tuus sicut acervus tritici muniti inter lilia; eo quod continens sibi in omnibus Christi ortus ex Virgine, sicut victores solent saecularium praeliorum, strenuorum virorum donatis torquibus honorare cervices; ita jugum nostrum levavit, ut fidelium colla virtutis insignibus coronaret. Vere autem alvus ille Mariae crater tornatilis, in quo erat Sapientia, quae miscuit in cratere vinum suum, indeficientem cognitionis piae gratiam divinitatis suae plenitudine subministrans. In quo virginis utero simul acervus tritici, et lilii floris gratia germinabat; quoniam et granum tritici generabat, et lilium. Granum tritici secundum quod scriptum est: Amen, amen, dico vobis, nisi granum tritici cadens in terram, mortuum fuerit, ipsum solum manet. Sed quia de uno grano tritici acervus est factus, completum est illud propheticum: Et convalles abundabunt frumento, quia granum illud mortuum, plurimum fructum attulit. Hoc itaque granum omnes homines perpetua coelestium munerum esca saturavit: consummatumque est illud prophetici oris eloquium, dicente eodem David: Cibavit eos ex adipe frumenti, et de petra melle saturavit eos. In hoc grano esse etiam lilium divina testantur oracula; quia scriptum est: Ego sum flos campi, et lilium convallium: sicut lilium in medio spinarum.   Sanctus Ambrosius Mediolanensis, De Institutione Virginis, Caput XIV

This imitate, daughters, to whom beauty befits, that which concerning the Church is prophesised: Beautiful are made the steps of your sandals, daughter of Aminadab 1 by which the church advances by the beautiful preaching of the Gospel. With beauty the soul goes forth, to which the body is like a sandal, by which it wishes it be able to do so without any obstacle on its path. In this covering of beauty Mary goes forth, she who a Virgin without any admixture of corporeal custom bore the author of salvation. Whence with excellence John says, I am not worthy tie his sandal, 2 that is, I am not worthy to understand in the narrows of the human mind the mystery of the Incarnation and to resolve it with the vile poverty of speech. Whence Isaiah says, ' Who can speak His generation ? 3 So the steps of Mary are beautiful, or the Church, because beautiful are the steps of the Gospel. How beautiful indeed she who in the figure of the Church, Mary, is foretold, if, however, is meant not the members of the body but the mystery of His generation. For it is said to her: 'The movement of your legs is like a necklace, work of a master craftsman's hand. Your navel is a smooth bowl not cheaply filled. Your stomach is like a heap of wheat among lilies 4 which contains in itself everything of the coming of Christ from the Virgin, as victory is accustomed to rise from worldly battles, with gifts of necklaces being given to honour the necks of vigorous men, as our yoke he lifted that the neck of the faithful he might crown with virtue. For truly the belly of Mary is a smooth bowl, in which was Wisdom mixing in the bowl its wine, supplying deficient grace of thought with the plenitude of His Holy Divinity. 5 In which womb of the Virgin was the heap of wheat, and with grace of the lily flower he come forth, because even the grain of wheat he made and the lily. The grain of wheat of which it is written: 'Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it remains alone.' 6 But because from one grain a heap of wheat is made, fulfilled is the prophecy: 'and the valleys shall abound with crops,' 7 because the grain that is dead makes many come forth. 6 So with this grain he has filled every man with the perpetual food of the celestial gift, and fulfilled is the speech of the prophetic mouth, David saying, 'He fed them from the fat of the crop, and from the stone He brought forth honey.' 8 In this grain is even the holy lily witnessed by prophecy: 'I am the flower of the field and the lily of the valley, like a lily in the midst of thorns.' 9 Saint Ambrose, On The Birth of the Virgin, Chap 14 1 Song 7.1 2 Jn 1.17 3 Is 53.8 4 Song 7.1. 5 Prov 9.2  6 Jn 12.24  7 Ps 64.14 8 Ps 80.17 9 Song 2.1-2