The new covenant

[donadams]

Part one

New and eternal Covenant!

Spiritual covenant of grace

Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God of Hosts! Isa 6:3

(Please read slowly & prayerfully cos thats how I wrote it, and it is large with many aspects)

{State of mankind}

All mankind is in a state of enmity with God, under a curse & children of wrath, disobedient, separated from God, & devoid of grace, “the life of God”!

Satan desired the fall of man to accomplish this very thing, that none of mankind could ever by nature be worthy of receiving the incarnate Word: “our salvation” (Jesus Christ)

Sinners and God are enemies, We have all been exiled from the Garden Paradise in Adam and cursed by God, relationship severed; under condemnation, bondage to sin, death and Satan. As you stated above our sinful nature is now to follow our desires, like our first parents in the Garden. We don't want God, but want to be like gods! This is pertinent to understanding how far we have fallen. And what it takes to redeem us from this disastrous predicament we are in. Man cannot save himself from it, for he is already under a curse and condemned! Serving and following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body, and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.


God is Holy!

Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God of Hosts! Isa 6:3

{God’s plan of salvation}

{The new covenant with the “woman” Mary & Her children}
(gen 3:15)

“Mary found favor with God” Lk 1:30


Only by the great power of God could a means of salvation be effected for the redemption of mankind and a person be made worthy by the grace in God in virtue of the future merits of Christ to receive “our salvation” and bring forth “our savior” clothing the eternal Word with flesh & blood who would offer Himself as both high priest and victim on the cross to accomplish our redemption, atonement, & ultimate salvation!

This was effected by the power of God thru the IMMACULATE CONCEPTION of Mary most pure & holy, created by God without original sin & in total enmity with will of satan.

“He that is mighty (Lord God) has done great things to me”! (Mary) Lk 1:49

To him who alone doeth great wonders: for his mercy endureth for ever. Psalm 136:4

(Ex 25 Anything consecrated to God for His purposes must be pure, holy, and dedicated only to God’s service)

Covenant between God and “the woman” Mary & her offspring! Gen 3:15

Lk 1:26-38

26 But in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, whose name was Nazareth [to which the name Nazareth],

27 to a maiden [to a virgin], wedded to a man, whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the name of the maiden was Mary.

28 And the angel entered to her, and said, Hail, full of grace; the Lord is with thee; blessed be thou among women.

29 And when she had heard, she was troubled in his word, and thought what manner salutation this was.

30 And the angel said to her, Dread thou not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God.

31 Lo! thou shalt conceive in [the] womb, and shalt bear a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus.

32 This shall be great [He shall be great], and he shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give to him the seat of David, his father,

33 and he shall reign in the house of Jacob without end [and he shall reign in the house of Jacob into without end], and of his realm shall be none end.

34 And Mary said to the angel, On what manner shall this thing be done, for I know not man?

35 And the angel answered, and said to her, The Holy Ghost shall come from above into thee, and the virtue of the Highest shall overshadow thee; and therefore that holy thing that shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God.

36 And lo! Elisabeth, thy cousin, and she also hath conceived a son in her old (age), and this month is the sixth to her that is called barren;

37 for every word shall not be impossible with God.

38 And Mary said, Lo! the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me after thy word. And the angel departed from her.

(((The covenant is sealed)))

Mary was made worthy by God and the grace merited by Christ to receive & be the mother of “our salvation”! (Jesus Christ is our salvation Lk 2:30) pure, immaculate, & holy! (Rev 12:1) clothed with the sun, endowed with all the Gifts of God, fullness of Grace!

Gen 3:15 Mary obtains offspring apart from man, by the Holy Spirit, and is the adversary of satan. Rev 12

Eve: Disobedience / offense / curse / loss of grace and salvation!

Mary: obedience / faithful / pleasing to God / blessings / full of grace / redemption & salvation!
(Possibility of salvation for all men)

What the virgin Eve lost by her unbelief, the virgin Mary gained by her faith! (Lk 1:45 Faithful)

Mary received all God had destined for the angels and men before the fall, created without original sin and in a state of sanctifying grace!

Eve was taken out of Adam.
The eternal Word is taken out of Mary.

In heaven the Word has a father without a mother.
On earth the Word has a mother without a father.

The creator obeys and honors the His creation in the person of Mary, the mother of the Word incarnate.

“Honor Thy father and mother”

God clothed Mary in grace (Lk 1:28-30 rev 12:1) so Mary could clothe the eternal Word with flesh & blood!

Mary is the holy city, the tabernacle of the Lord, the holy of holies!
The dwelling place of the Immortal Creator, the eternal Word made flesh!

Mary is the mystical city of God!

(((Mary is the new covenant, the new holy city, the new Jerusalem “our mother”!)))

Scripture says: “holiness befits thy house, O Lord” (Ps 93:5). Mary was Jesus’ “house” for 9 months so if holiness befits God’s house would not Mary be holy also? The Ark and the Tabernacle are types of Mary, she was set apart and consecrated to the Lord., the holy dwelling of God.

1 cor 3:17 …..for the temple of God is holy….. Mary is the temple, house, dwelling of God, God had need of Her to become man!

Jesus was conceived pure and immaculate because Mary was pure and immaculate. As Job said “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one.” (Job 14:4).


{Source & first cause}

God is the “source and first cause,” of all good, this does not exclude another immediate cause that is chosen and authorized by God to accomplish His will & purpose!

Examples:

Noah:
Moses:
Joshua:

(Primary cause)

God is the source, first, & remote cause of the salvation of the family of Noah from the flood!

(Secondary cause)

Noah is the “immediate” cause of the salvation of the family of Noah from the flood!

Noah believed God:
Noah consented to God will & plan of salvation:
Noah puts his faith into action by obedience to God & building the ark:

 

[donadams]

Part two


(Primary cause)

God is the source, first, & remote cause of the salvation of the children of Israel from Egypt!

(Secondary cause)

Moses is the immediate cause of the salvation of the of the children of Israel from Egypt!

Moses puts his faith into action by obedience to God, going back to Egypt and delivering the children of Israel from bondage.


(Primary cause)

God is the source, first, & remote cause of the children of Israel entering the promised land!

(Secondary cause)

Joshua is the immediate cause of the children of Israel entering the promised land!

Joshua puts his faith into action by obedience to God, and leading the children of Israel into the promised land.


These are “type and figures of our salvation!”


Mary & The great affair of “our salvation!”


(Primary cause)

God is the source, first, & remote cause of “our salvation!”

(Secondary cause)

Mary is the immediate cause of “our salvation!”

Mary found grace with God. Lk 1:30

Mary believed God. Lk 1:45

Mary put her faith into action by obedience to God by consenting to “our salvation.”

Mary consented to “our salvation.” Lk 1:38

And By the conception of the Holy Spirit!

Mary is the fruitful virgin who conceived by the power of the most high. Matt 1:

And by bearing in Her sacred womb “our salvation.”

And by giving birth to “our salvation.”

Mary gave birth to “our salvation.”


You would never say: “Noah had zero to do with the salvation of his family from the flood!” Or that “Moses had zero to do with the salvation of children of Israel from bondage in Egypt,” or that Joshua has zero to do with the children of Israel entering the promised land.”

{The Woman & Her offspring}

Gen 3:15
Gal 4:26
Born again

“Free woman”

Gall 4:22-31

22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.

23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.

24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.

25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.

26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

27 For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.

28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.

29 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.

30 Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.

31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

(Born again of incorruptible seed)

I Pet. 1: 23- Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. 25- but the word of the Lord endureth forever. (Lk 1:45)

 

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Part three

{Atonement}

The high priest Jesus Christ offers Himself as the victim on the cross and obtains the atonement, redemption, and salvation!

The victim must be pure, sinless, & holy to be acceptable. The eternal Word took flesh and blood of the sinless virgin Mary!

Jn 1:29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

This is the blood of the new and eternal testament, her blood becomes “my blood of the new & eternal testament.

Sinless Mary clothed the eternal Word with human flesh & blood.

It is the flesh & blood that He took of the virgin that is crucified for our redemption & salvation!

That accomplished the atonement!


{Luke One}

45 And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.

46 And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord,

47 And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.

48 For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.

Lk 1:55 As he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever. (Gen 22:18)

Psalm 136:22 Even an heritage unto Israel his servant: for his mercy endureth for ever.

23 Who remembered us in our low estate: for his mercy endureth for ever:

24 And hath redeemed us from our enemies: for his mercy endureth for ever.

“Mary dispenses the gifts of the Spirit”

Lk 1:39-41
41 And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda;

40 And entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elisabeth.

41 And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost:

“Mary dispensing another gift of the Spirit”

67 And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying,

68 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people,

69 And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David;

70 As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began:

71 That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us;

72 To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; (gen 12:3 22:16)

73 The oath which he sware to our father Abraham,

74 That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear,

75 In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.

76 And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways;

77 To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins,

78 Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us,

79 To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. (Isa 9:2 Jn 8:12)

80 And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel.

St. Bernardine of Siena wrote that by that fundamental fecundity she received from God the Father, Mary generated to the life of grace “all the elect, even the very angels”.
(Fecundity, procreation or offspring)

“No grace descends to souls from heaven,” says St. Bernardine of Siena, “but is dispensed by the Virgin Mary.”

Her function therefore is clear. It is through her that the head rules the whole body and gives it life. She is the heart that circulates the life-giving fluid throughout the body and puts the remotest little finger in organic connection with the head. And there is a peculiar characteristic of the heart which is very suggestive of Mary’s exceptional function. While the head gives life to the heart and directs every throbbing of it, it is the heart that supplies food to the head and keeps it in life. This reciprocal action between the head and the heart is duplicated in the mystical body too, though on an entirely different plane. While Christ gives Mary all her supernatural and natural being, Mary is privileged to supply Him with His human life and substance. But to the members of Christ she communicates supernatural life.

Thus her function of dispensing grace is a natural and necessary consequence of her being the Organ of the Holy Ghost. If Redemption is the work of the Second Person, the continuation of it, or sanctification, is the work of the Third Person. And if Mary co-operated in the Redemption as Mother of God and Second Eve, she co-operates in the work of sanctification as the Spouse of the Holy Ghost and His authoritative and dynamic organ. As Scheeben remarks again, the Holy Ghost makes use of her in the same manner as the Logos makes use of the Sacred Humanity of Christ, so much so that she appears henceforward as His very embodiment. This union between her and the Holy Ghost is intimate and lasting, as the idea of espousals traditionally applied to it by the Church implies. But the idea as applied here is eminently supernatural and far more real than its type in the natural order. As true Spouse of the Holy Ghost she was fully and substantially co-principle with Him in the production of the Sacred Humanity of Christ, which function she continues to exercise spiritually in the production and development of the members of Christ’s mystical body This is the meaning of her universal mediation in the whole economy of grace.

“All the gifts of the Holy Ghost,” says St. Bernardine of Siena, “are administered by the hands of this virgin to whom she wishes, when she wishes, how she wishes and as much as she wishes.” Proof (Lk 1:41 & Lk 1:67)

We find the same idea expressed by great Fathers of the church like St. Jerome, St. Methodius, St. Damascene!

 

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Christ’s witnesses! Acts1:8


((Third Century Witnesses!))

“He (the eternal Word) was the ark formed of incorruptible wood. For by this is signified that His tabernacle was exempt from putridity and corruption.”
– Hippolytus, Orations In illud, Dominus pascit me (ante A.D. 235).

“This Virgin Mother of the Only Begotten of God, is called Mary, worthy of God, immaculate of the immaculate, one of the one.” – Origen, Homily 1(A.D. 244).


((Fourth Century Witnesses))

“Let woman praise Her, the pure Mary.”
– Ephraim, Hymns on the Nativity, 15:23 (A.D. 370).

“Thou alone and thy Mother are in all things fair, there is no flaw in thee and no stain in thy Mother.” (Song of Solomon 2:1-2 & 4:7)
– Ephraem, Nisibene Hymns, 27:8 (A.D. 370).

“O noble Virgin, truly you are greater than any other greatness. For who is your equal in greatness, O dwelling place of God the Word? To whom among all creatures shall I compare you, O Virgin? You are greater than them all O Covenant, clothed with purity instead of gold! You are the Ark in which is found the golden vessel containing the true manna, that is, the flesh in which divinity resides.”
-Athanasius, Homily of the Papyrus of Turin, 71:216 (ante AD 373).

[In the above quote by Saint Athanasius, the defender of the divinity of Christ, we find him identifying Mary with the gilded Ark of the Covenant. Moreover, he is praying to her.]

“Mary, a Virgin not only undefiled but a Virgin whom grace has made inviolate, free of every stain of sin.”
– Ambrose, Sermon 22:30 (A.D. 388).


((Fifth Century Witnesses))

“We must except the Holy Virgin Mary, concerning whom I wish to raise no question when it touches the subject of sins, out of honour to the Lord; for from Him we know what abundance of grace for overcoming sin in every particular was conferred upon her who had the merit to conceive and bear Him who undoubtedly had no sin.”
– Augustine, Nature and Grace, 42 [36] (A.D. 415).

“As he formed her without my stain of her own, so He proceeded from her contracting no stain.”
– Proclus of Constantinople, Homily 1 (ante A.D. 446).

[The quote above by Proclus demonstrates that the primative Eastern Church did already articulate sin in term of a transmitted and contracted “stain.” Contemporary Eastern Orthodox dismissals of “the stain of original sin” is disingenuous.]

“A virgin, innocent, spotless, free of all defect, untouched, unsullied, holy in soul and body, like a lily sprouting among thorns.”
– Theodotus of Ancrya, Homily VI:11 (ante A.D. 446).

“The angel took not the Virgin from Joseph, but gave her to Christ, to whom she was pledged from Joseph, but gave her to Christ, to whom she was pledged in the womb, when she was made.”
– Peter Chrysologus, Sermon 140 (A.D. 449).


((Sixth Century Witnesses))

“The very fact that God has elected her proves that none was ever holier than Mary, if any stain had disfigured her soul, if any other virgin had been purer and holier, God would have selected her and rejected Mary.”
– Jacob of Sarug (ante A.D. 521).


((Seven - Ninth Century Witnesses))

“She is born like the cherubim, she who is of a pure, immaculate clay.”
– Theotokos of Livias, Panegyric for the feast of the Dormition of Mary, 5:6 (ante A.D. 650).

“Today humanity, in all the radiance of her immaculate nobility, receives its ancient beauty. The shame of sin had darkened the splendour and attraction of human nature; but when the Mother of the Fair One par excellence is born, this nature regains in her person its ancient privileges and is fashioned according to a perfect model truly worthy of God…. The reform of our nature begins today and the aged world, subjected to a wholly divine transformation, receives the first fruits of the second creation.”
– Andrew of Crete, Sermon I, On the Birth of Mary (A.D. 733).

“Truly elect, and superior to all, not by the altitude of lofty structures, but as excelling all in the greatness and purity of sublime and divine virtues, and having no affinity with sin whatever.”
– Germanus of Constantinople, Marracci in S. Germani Mariali (ante A.D. 733).

“O most blessed loins of Joachim from which came forth a spotless seed! O glorious womb of Anne in which a most holy offspring grew.” John Damascene, Homily I (ante A.D. 749).


((More witnesses))

St. Athanasius

. . . pure and unstained Virgin . . . (On the Incarnation of the Word, 8; Gambero, 102)

O noble Virgin, truly you are greater than any other greatness. For who is your equal in greatness, O dwelling place of God the Word? To whom among all creatures shall I compare you, O Virgin? You are greater than them all O Covenant, clothed with purity instead of gold! You are the Ark in which is found the golden vessel containing the true manna, that is, the flesh in which divinity resides. (Homily of the Papyrus of Turin, 71, 216; Gambero, 106)

St. Ephraem

Mary and Eve, two people without guilt, two simple people, were identical. Later, however, one became the cause of our death, the other the cause of our life (Op. syr. II, 327; Ott, 201)

The Virgin Mary is a symbol of the Church, when she receives the first announcement of the gospel . . . We call the Church by the name of Mary, for she deserves a double name. (Sermo ad noct. Resurr.; Gambero, 115)

Thou and thy mother are the only ones who are totally beautiful in every respect; for in thee, O Lord, there is no spot, and in thy Mother no stain. (Nisibene Hymns, 27, v. 8; Ott, 201)

[W]e find Ephraem delineating her as free from every stain, like her son.

 

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St. Cyril of Jerusalem

Pure and spotless is this birth. For where the Holy Spirit breathes, all pollution is taken away, so that the human birth of the Only-begotten from the Virgin is undefiled. (Catechetical Lectures, XII, 31-32; Gambero, 140)

St. Gregory Nazianzen

He was conceived by the Virgin, who had first been purified by the Spirit in soul and body; for, as it was fitting that childbearing should receive its share of honor, so it was necessary that virginity should receive even greater honor. (Sermon 38, 13; Gambero, 162-163)

St. Gregory of Nyssa

It was, to divulge by the manner of His Incarnation this great secret; that purity is the only complete indication of the presence of God and of His coming, and that no one can in reality secure this for himself, unless he has altogether estranged himself from the passions of the flesh. What happened in the stainless Mary when the fulness of the Godhead which was in Christ shone out through her, that happens in every soul that leads by rule the virgin life. (On Virginity, 2; NPNF 2, Vol. V, 344)

T]he power of the Most High, through the Holy Spirit, overshadowed the human nature and was formed therein; that is to say, the portion of flesh was formed in the immaculate Virgin. (Against Apollinaris, 6; Gambero, 153)

St. Ambrose

. . . Mary, a Virgin not only undefiled but a Virgin whom grace has made inviolate, free of every stain of sin. (Commentary on Psalm 118, 22, 30; Jurgens, II, 166)

What is greater than the Mother of God? What more glorious than she whom Glory Itself chose? What more chaste than she who bore a body without contact with another body? (Virginity, II, 6; NPNF 2, Vol. X, 374)

St. Epiphanius

Mary, the holy Virgin, is truly great before God and men. For how shall we not proclaim her great, who held within her the uncontainable One, whom neither heaven nor earth can contain? (Panarion, 30, 31; Gambero, 127)

St. Jerome

‘There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a flower shall grow out of his roots.’ The rod is the mother of the Lord–simple, pure, unsullied; drawing no germ of life from without but fruitful in singleness like God Himself… Set before you the blessed Mary, whose surpassing purity made her meet to be the mother of the Lord. (Letter XXII. To Eustochium, 19, 38; NPNF 2, Vol. VI, 29, 39; cf. Gambero, p. 213: “whose purity was so great that she merited to be the Mother of the Lord”)

Indeed how inferior they are, in terms of holiness, to blessed Mary, Mother of the Lord! (Contra Pelagianos, 1, 16; Gambero, 212)


St. Augustine

We must except the holy Virgin Mary, concerning whom I wish to raise no question when it touches the subject of sins, out of honour to the Lord; for from Him we know what abundance of grace for overcoming sin in every particular was conferred upon her who had the merit to conceive and bear Him who undoubtedly had no sin. Well, then, if, with this exception of the Virgin, we could only assemble together all the forementioned holy men and women, and ask them whether they lived without sin whilst they were in this life, what can we suppose would be their answer? (A Treatise on Nature and Grace, chapter 42 [XXXVI]; NPNF 1, Vol. V)

Augustine went a step farther. In an incidental remark against Pelagius, he agreed with him in excepting Mary, “propter honorem Domini,” from actual (but not from original) sin. This exception he is willing to make from the sinfulness of the race, but no other. He taught the sinless birth and life of Mary, but not her immaculate conception. . . . The reasoning of Augustine backward from the holiness of Christ to the holiness of His mother was an important turn, which was afterward pursued to further results. The same reasoning leads as easily to the doctrine of the immaculate conception of Mary, though also, just as well, to a sinless mother of Mary herself, and thus upward to the beginning, of the race, to another Eve who never fell.

(Schaff, HCC 3, 418-419)

We do not deliver Mary to the devil by the condition of her birth; but for this reason, because this very condition is resolved by the grace of rebirth. (Opus Imperf. Contra Julianum, 4, 122; Graef, 99)

And so he created a Virgin, whom he had chosen to be his Mother . . . she, with pious faith, merited to receive the holy seed within her. He chose her, to be created from her. (De peccatorum meritis et remissione, 2, 24, 38; Gambero, 219)

St. Cyril of Alexandria

Hail, Mary Theotokos, Virgin-Mother, lightbearer, uncorrupt vessel . . . Hail Mary, you are the most precious creature in the whole world; hail, Mary, uncorrupt dove; hail, Mary, inextinguishable lamp; for from you was born the Sun of justice . . . Through you, every faithful soul achieves salvation. (Homily 11 at the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus; Gambero, 243, 245)

A virgin, innocent, spotless, free of all defect, untouched, unsullied, holy in soul and body, like a lily sprouting among thorns. (Homily VI, 11; O’Carroll, 339)

If iron, once joined to fire, immediately expels the impurities extraneous to its nature and swiftly acquires a likeness to the powerful flame that heats it, . . . how much more, in a superior way, did the Virgin burn when the divine fire (the Holy Spirit) rushed in? She was purified from earthly impurities, and from whatever might be against her nature, and was restored to her original beauty, so as to become inaccessible, untouchable, and irreconcilable to carnal things. (Homily 4, 6; Gambero, 264)

Innocent virgin, spotless, without defect, untouched, unstained, holy in body and in soul, like a lily-flower sprung among thorns, unschooled in the wickedness of Eve . . . clothed with divine grace as with a cloak . . . (Homily 6, 11; Gambero, 268)

St. John Damascene

O most blessed loins of Joachim from which came forth a spotless seed! O glorious womb of Anne in which a most holy offspring grew. (Homily I on the Nativity of Mary; O’Carroll, 200; cf. Graef, 154; Gambero, 402)

She is all beautiful, all near to God. For she, surpassing the cherubim, exalted beyond the seraphim, is placed near to God. (Homily on the Nativity, 9; Gambero, 403)