A Womb Enclosed You and Yet The Heavens Cannot Contain You

“A womb enclosed You, yet how can a word be sufficient for You? A womb carried You, yet who does not fear to speak of You?

Arms carried You, but for someone to speak of You is audacious; breasts have nourished You, yet not to marvel [at You] is an ingratitude.

Heaven stood in awe, it diminished, it wasted from your greatness,

but a womb received, held, and carried your glory.

Because of these things, the learned man stumbles when he beholds You;

the word of the wise one is defeated, since it does not suffice for You.

Whenever the mind beheld that heaven is full of your greatness, it saw your Shekinah dwelling in the womb; it is troubled.

On this account the disputant stumbles without knowing You; his word is entangled in strife without praising You.

In faith, without stumbling because of your lowliness, grant me to receive You in my thoughts with wonder.”

St. Jacob of Serugh,
Homily Concerning the Holy Mother of God, Mary, When She Went to Elizabeth To See the Truth Which Was Told To Her by Gabriel as in On The Mother of God Translated by Mary Hansbury