“Hail to you forever, O virgin mother of God, our unceasing joy…You are the pearl of great price that belongs to the kingdom; the fate of every victim, the living altar of the bread of life. Hail, O treasure of God. Hail, O fount of the Son’s love for man.”

                         -St. Methodius of Olympus

For Reflection:

Why do you think Mary is our “unceasing joy”? Why do you think she is the “pearl of great price that belongs to the kingdom”? How is Mary “the living altar of the bread of life” and, therefore, “the fate of every victim”? Why do you think she is the “treasure of God” and the “fount of the Son’s love for man”? In considering all of this, is my appreciation and love of the Virgin Mary deepened; to what extent?

The Eternal Woman: The Timeless Meaning of the Feminine
Gertrud von le Fort
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Pb 128 pgs

FORWARD TO THE 1954 EDITION

Pg xiv

     Perhaps the realization that man’s weakness is his real and only strength, his surrender to God’s holy will the only true victory he can achieve, perhaps such an awareness is more connate to feminine than to masculine nature. Of course, we must understand these terms properly as spiritual principles and polar forces which can find their expression in both man and woman.