Born from the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary

“Who was born from the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary.” This birth among men belongs to the plan of salvation, while the earlier birth is of the divine substance; the one comes from his stooping down to us, the other from his very nature. He is born from the Holy Spirit of the Virgin. Here a chaste ear and a pure mind are needed. For you must understand that a temple has now been built within the hidden depths of a virgin’s womb for him of whom you learned a little while ago that he was born of the Father in a way beyond words. And just as no thought of imperfection may be admitted in the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, so no defilement is to be imagined in the birth from the Virgin. For this birth was a new birth given to this world, and rightly new. For he who is the only Son in heaven is, as a result, the only Son on earth, and was born uniquely, born as no other ever was or can be. [a]

The words of the prophets about him, “A virgin will conceive and bear a son,” are known to all and are quoted in the Gospels again and again. The prophet Ezekiel too had foretold the wonderful manner of that birth, calling Mary figuratively “the gate of the Lord,” that is, the gate through which the Lord entered the world. For he says, “The gate that faces the east will be shut and will not be opened, and no one will pass through it, because the Lord God of Israel will pass through it, and it will be shut.” What could be said with plainer reference to the unbroken keeping of the Virgin’s state? That gate of virginity was shut. Through it the Lord God of Israel entered; through it he came out from the Virgin’s womb into this world; and with her virginity kept unbroken, the Virgin’s gate remained shut forever. So the Holy Spirit is spoken of as the Creator of the Lord’s flesh and of his temple.