The Handmaid

Ecce ancilla Domini, fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum. Videte, fratres, humilitatem Virginis Verbum Dei concipientis. Videte obedientiam Domini ad nos per Virginem venientis. Videte claritatem et delictionem, circa humanum genus, Dei Patris angelum ad Virginem, nomine Mariam, mittentis. Hujus nobilissimi nominis praedulcis interpretatio claritudinem meritorum illius atque virtutum aperta ratione demonstrat. Interpretatur enim Maria stella maris sive domina. Merito vocatur Domina, quia Dominum totius creaturae, salva perpetua sua virginitate, hodierna die concipere et certo tempore gignere meruit. Cui Deus Pater, ut David partriarcha testatur in psalmo, dicens: Data est mihi omnis potestas in coelo et in terra, etc. De quo idem Propheta: Domini est terra et plenitudo eius. Item in eadem psalmo: Dominus fortis et potens, Dominus potens in praelio. Et ut illum fortem et potentem credamus, Gabriel archangelus qui fortitudo Dei dicitur, nasciturum de Virgine evangelizare debuit, quam ad debellandum perditionis principem et mortis imperium destruendum, velut geminae gigantem substantiae omnipotens Pater unicum Filium suum transmisit. Consequens etenim est ut Dei genitrix et semper virgo Maria maris stella vocetur, quia sicut illi qui inter fluctus maris exercitatione navigii laborant, stellis sibi Deo auctore famulantibus, ad portum quietis venire desiderant; ita quisquis in hujus saeculi periculoso naufragio, fluctibus perniciosis irruentibus, sive de animae, sive de corporis vita periclitatur, necesse est ad contemplationem istius stellae aciem mentis dirigat, per cuius meritum et gratiam posse se ab omni periculo liberari non dubitat. Odilo Cluniacensis Abbas, Sermo IV, De Incarnatione Dominica Source: Migne PL 142.1003b-d

Behold, the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me according to your word. 1 See, brothers, the humility of the Virgin conceiving the Word of God. See the obedience of the Lord coming to us through the Virgin. See the glory and love for the human race of God the Father sending the angel to the Virgin by the name of Mary. The interpretation of this most noble and sweetest name with evident reason shows the clarity of her merits and virtue. For Mary is understood as 'Star of the Sea' and 'Lady.' And rightly 'Lady', because she merited, by the security of her perptual virginity, this day to conceive, and after a certain time to give birth to, the Lord of all creation. To which God the Father, the patriarch David gives witness in the Psalm, saying: 'All power in heaven and earth has been given to me.' 2 Concerning which the same Prophet says: 'The earth is the Lord's and the fullness of it.' 3 And in the same Psalm: 'The Lord strong and powerful, the Lord powerful in war.' 4 And so that we believe Him strong and powerful, it was befitting that the archangel Gabriel, whose name means 'Strength of God,' announce the coming birth from the Virgin, that for the defeat of the prince of ruin and the destruction of the empire of death, as a giant from dual substance, the almighty Father had sent the only Son. Consequently the mother of God and ever virgin Mary is called 'Star of the Sea,' because as they who labour to sail amid the waves of the sea, attend to the stars of God the creator, desiring to come to the port of rest, so for anyone in the perilous shipwreck of the world, with the wicked waves pouring in, endangering either the life of the soul or the body, it is necessary that he direct the attention of his mind to the contemplation of this star, not doubting that by its merit and grace it is possible that he be freed from every danger. Saint Odo of Cluny, from Sermon 4, On The Incarnation Of The Lord 1 Lk 1.38 2 Mt 28.18 3 Ps 23.1 4 Ps 23.8