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On the Admirability of the Virgin Theotokos

A great sign, an august miracle is what many estimate the resuscitation of Lazarus to have been, the crown of Christ’s miracles, and on account of which Christ said: This infirmity is not unto death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it. Moreover the Savior Himself seems to have worked the greatest sign and miracle of them all, His own Resurrection, since to the Jews, asking Him for a sign, He said: No sign shall be given him except the sign of Jonah, the prophet. A sign, indeed, from Heaven, great and entirely wonderful, as the one they sought from Him; for He rose again in that majesty and glory, in which He appeared transfigured, when His face shone like the Sun. But if Christ, after His death, in glory (is) a great miracle, behold Mary, after Her death, most glorious, clothed with the Sun and the Moon under Her feet, and on Her head a crown of many stars.
A great sign! Wonderful indeed is the ornament of heaven; whence the Royal Prophet (says): Since I shall see Thy heavens, the works of Thy fingers, the Moon and the stars which Thou has founded. I shall see, that is, ‘I shall contemplate’, ‘I shall wonder at’. And the Wise man says of the Sun: Admirable vessel, a work of the Most High. But never is it all seen at once. For in the day the Sun is indeed seen, but not the stars; moreover in the night the stars indeed appear, but the Sun lies hidden beneath the horizon; and the Moon, when it is beneath the Sun, and conjoined to it, lies entirely hidden to us, and is least of all conspicuous. But here both the Sun is seen and at the same time the splendid Moon is discerned beneath it, and at the same time most refulgent stars twinkle in Heaven. Indeed, every ornament of Heaven has God, the Creator of all, placed in Mary.
Therefore, how wonderful She is!

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