The Wisdom of God says:

“The Lord begot me, the first-born of his ways,

  the forerunner of his prodigies of long ago;

From of old I was poured forth,

  at the first, before the earth.

When there were no depths I was brought forth,

  when there were no fountains or springs of water;

Before the mountains were settled into place,

  before the hills, I was brought forth;

While as yet the earth and fields were not made,

  nor the first clods of the world.

“When he established the heavens I was there,

  when he marked out the vault over the face of the deep;

When he made firm the skies above,

  when he fixed fast the foundations of the earth;

When he set for the sea its limit,

  so that the waters should not transgress his command;

Then was I beside him as his craftsman,

  and I was his delight day by day,

Playing before him all the while,

  playing on the surface of his earth;

  and I found delight in the sons of men.”

 

 

It is possible to find a double source of this identification of our Lady with Sophia, the Wisdom of God, and to give it, accordingly, a twofold interpretation. In the first place our Lady can be given the name of Sophia, insofar as she is the spirit-bearer, in virtue of the personal descent upon her of the Holy Ghost; she is his consecrated temple. Although she does not thereby become theandric, since the Holy Ghost is not incarnate, yet she is his anointed vessel. Wisdom in the Godhead is both the Son and the Holy Ghost. If the Logos is Wisdom, so too is the Holy Ghost, since he is the Spirit of Wisdom. And the cultus of our Lady as Wisdom may refer to her position of Spirit-bearer, not to her personally, since she is overshadowed by the Holy Ghost, but through her to the Holy Ghost himself. And in that sense it is to be taken as veneration of the divine Wisdom.

 

But besides this we find another meaning attached to the veneration of our Lady, insofar as it is directed to createdWisdom. She is created Wisdom, for she is creation glorified. In her is realized the purpose of creation, the complete penetration of the creature by Wisdom, the full accord of the created type with its prototype, its entire accomplishment. In her creation is completely irradiated by its prototype. In her God is already all in all. The limits to the penetration of creation by Wisdom, involved in its freedom to develop, are entirely transcended in the “handmaid of the Lord,” who is already worthy of the glory of heaven. Divine Wisdom shines forth in creaturely form in the complete holiness of her who is “more honorable than the cherubim, more glorious incomparably than the seraphim.” For ontological holiness is at the same time fully realized Wisdom, wherein “wisdom is justified of her children” (Matt. 11.19). In this aspect of Wisdom manifest in our Lady it is precisely her creatureliness which appears to be essential, her created human nature, which was found worthy to be honored with the bestowal of the Holy Ghost.

 

The Mother of God is glorified with the title of Wisdom only insofar as she is Mother of the God-human, who took from her his human nature, the counterpart of created Wisdom…. The created humanity of Christ the God-human

came to him from the Mother of God. It belongs to her. In a true sense it is possible to say that she herself personally is this created humanity of Christ, that she is the created Sophia. The humanity of Christ belongs at once to him, since it is one of his two natures, and to her, in whom it personally subsists. And it is in this sense, as sharing the human nature of the God-human, that his holy Mother is the created Sophia. In this way the different aspects of Sophia, the Wisdom of God, its two faces, are at one in the person of the Mother of God.

 

Therefore is she exalted as “more honorable than the cherubim, more glorious incomparably than the seraphim” and, a fortiori, holiest of the human race. Yet even the holy Mother of God is not the only manifestation of

created Wisdom….it includes, in it is grounded the existence of the whole creation, “heaven and earth,” the world of angels and the world of humans…. Created Wisdom serves not only, as the foundation, of creation, but also as the means of its glorification, its potential glory. The penetration by Wisdom of the creation, which itself rests upon the basis of Wisdom, is Wisdom’s proper work, in the form which particularly belongs to it, that of the sanctity of the creature. And in this again Wisdom is at one with the holy Mother of God, who is the summit of creation, the Queen of Heaven and Earth. From this point of view the sanctity of the creature and its penetration by Wisdom are one and the same thing.

 

 

 

 

You power of Wisdom

that circled circling

and embracing all

in a course that is filled with life –

you have three wings:

one soars into the heights,

another has moisture from the earth,

the third flies all around.

All praise to you, Wisdom,

as is your due!

 

 

O Lord our God,

grant us, your servants,

unfailing health of mind and body,

and through the glorious intercession of blessed Mary ever virgin

free us from present sorrow

and lead us to the joy of the world to come.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

God for ever and ever. Amen. (Common BVM)