Mary's feminine heart, keystone of the heavenly city

The redeeming love of Christ sustains the fidelity of those who have received, like the sovereign Virgin, the gift of undivided love. "It is not possible to separate purity, which is love, from the essence of our faith, which is charity, a surge of love unceasingly renewed for God" (St. Josemaría, Friends of God, §186). Chastity, in the different states of life, makes the image of Christ, the Church and the Kingdom of heaven more visible. Holiness and virginity are embraced in the feminine heart of Mary, the keystone of the heavenly city.

Mary's holiness, a treasure of charity towards God and neighbor, is associated with her virginity, the exclusive gift of self for the Incarnation of the Word. Our Lady unites the two prerogatives to an "eminent and singular" degree (Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium, §63). Mary's fullness of grace is a requisite fact of faith; moreover, her virginity, the first fruits of the New Covenant, is professed in the ancient creeds.

The Liturgy attests to this: she is holy because, among the elect, she was "the only one to be raised above God" (St. Peter Damian, Hymn for the Assumption); she is a virgin because "she has no precedent, nor will there be one in the future" (Caelius Sedulius, Paschal Chant 2, 69). The sanctity of Our Lady is honored by several feasts, but her virginity is especially emphasized in the Presentation of the Lord (Holy See, Popular Piety, §122).

Father Fernandez

Opus Dei