#blessedvirginmary — Public Fediverse posts

Quote of the day, 15 August: St. Edith Stein

Mary stands at the crucial point of human history and especially at the crucial point of the history of woman; in her, motherhood was transfigured and physical maternity surmounted. Just as the goal of all human education is presented to us in a concrete, vital, and personal way through Christ, so also the goal of all women’s education is presented to us through Mary.

The most significant evidence of the eternal meaning and value to be found in sexual differentiation lies in the fact that the new Eve stands beside the new Adam on the threshold between the Old and the New Covenants. God chose as the instrument for His Incarnation a human mother, and in her He presented the perfect image of a mother. From the time that she learns she is to bear a son she is completely at the service of this mission. He is given to her by God and in fidelity to God she must look after Him. Her existence until the hour of His birth is one of composed expectancy; then in a life fully surrendered to service, she takes careful note of all words and signs which anticipate something of His future course. With all reverence for the divinity hidden in Him, she still maintains authority over Him when He is a child; in true perseverance, she participates in His work until His death and beyond it.

But before the annunciation of her election, this woman called to the most exalted maternity had not wanted marriage and motherhood for herself; and this was against every tradition of her people. She was determined to live free of marital obligations.

As handmaid of the Lord, she bore God’s Son and was mindful of the man placed at her side for the protection of her child and herself. She did not become one flesh with him; this marriage was not meant to propagate his heirs or to carry on the human race.

In Mary we meet the image of virginal purity. What else could have induced her decision to remain a virgin than her desire to be wholly the handmaid of the Lord, to belong only to Him and to be at His command? And how could such longing in a person be explained otherwise than through divine inspiration and vocation?

And thereby, as co-redeemer by the side of the Redeemer, she emerges from the natural order. Both mother and Son spring from the human race, and both embody human nature; yet, both are free from that relationship which makes possible the fulfillment of life’s meaning only in union with and through another person. Union with God replaces this relationship in both; in Christ through the hypostatic union, in Mary through the surrender of her whole being to the Lord’s service.

Saint Edith Stein

Problems of Women’s Education (excerpt)
Lectures at the German Institute of Scientific Pedagogy
Summer semester, 1932

Stein, E 2017, Essays On Woman, The Collected Works of Edith Stein, Book 2, translated from the German by Oben, F, ICS Publications, Washington D.C.

Featured image: Giuseppe Sciuti, The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Four Evangelists, 1896, fresco. Basilica Maria Santissima dell’Elemosina, Catania, Italy. Image credit: Renáta Sedmáková / Adobe Stock, asset no. 264723922.