Verba Virginis ad sponsam, qualiter Deo nil tantum placet, sicut quod summe diligatur ab homine, et ostendit hoc per exemplum de vna muliere pagana, que optinuit graciam propter multam dileccionem, quam habuit ad creatorem.
The Pagan Woman’s Interior Logic
The Mother of God introduces the principle of supreme love through the hypothetical reflections of a pagan woman who prioritizes her Creator over all earthly attachments.
The Mother speaks to the bride, saying: "Nothing pleases God as much as a person loving Him above all things." Look, I’ll tell you a story about a pagan woman who, knowing nothing of the Catholic faith, thought to herself like this: "I know," she said, "what I'm made of and where I came from into my mother's womb." "I also believe it would be impossible for me to have a body, joints, organs, and senses, unless someone had given them to me." And so there is a Creator who made me such a beautiful human person, and who didn't want to create me deformed like worms and snakes. It seems to me, then, that even if I had many husbands, if they all called for me, I would run to the single call of my Creator rather than to the voices of all of them. I also have many sons and daughters. Nevertheless, if I saw them holding food in their hands and knew that my Creator was hungry, I would certainly take the food from my children's hands and gladly offer it to my Creator. I, too, have many possessions that I manage according to my own will. If, however, I knew the will of my Creator, I would gladly let go of my own desires and manage them for the honor of that same Creator.
The Response of Grace
God rewards the woman's natural inclination toward truth by sending a teacher, leading her to embrace the faith and the mystery of the Passion.
But look, daughter, at what God did with that pagan woman. He sent one of his friends to teach her the holy faith, and God himself visited her heart directly, as you'll see from the woman's own words. When that man of God was preaching to her that there is one God without beginning and without end, who is the creator of all things, she replied: 'It’s well,' she said, 'and believable that He who created me and everything else has no creator above Him; and it’s quite likely that His life is eternal, since He was able to give life to me.' But when the woman heard that this same Creator took on human nature from a virgin and that He Himself preached with His own mouth, she replied: “It’s right to believe God in all virtuous works.” But you, friend of God, tell me: what are those words that came from the Creator’s mouth? For I truly want to let go of my own will and obey Him in everything that comes from His mouth. Then, as the friend of God preached about the passion and cross of God and about his resurrection, the woman answered with tearful eyes, 'Blessed be God, who so patiently shows on earth the love he has had for us in heaven.' Therefore, if I loved Him before because He created me, I am now even more obligated to love Him because He has shown me the right path and redeemed me with His own blood. I'm also bound to serve Him with all my strength and with every part of my being, because He redeemed me with every part of His own. Furthermore, I am bound to let go of every desire I once had for possessions, children, and parents, and to long only for my Creator in His glory and in that life which has no end.
The Reward of Love
The Mother of God concludes by affirming that the woman's reward is a universal promise for all who love God above all things.
The Mother of God also said, "Look, daughter, that woman received a manifold reward for her love." In the same way, everyone receives a reward each day, based on how much they love God while they live in this world."
Read the original Latin
Mater loquitur ad sponsam dicens: "Nichil tantum placet Deo, sicut quod homo diligat eum super omnia. Ecce dicam tibi similitudinem de vna femina pagana, que nichil sciens de fide catholica cogitauit secum talia:
'Ego', inquit, 'scio, de qua materia sum et de quibus veni in vterum matris. Ego eciam credo, quod impossibile est habuisse me corpus et compagines et viscera et sensus, nisi aliquis dedisset.
Et ideo aliquis creator est, qui me creauit tam decoram personam humanam et noluit creare me deformem sicut vermes et serpentes.
Videtur ergo michi, quod, licet ego habeam plures viros, quod, si omnes vocarent me, magis ego currerem ad vnicam vocacionem creatoris mei quam ad voces omnium illorum.
Ego eciam habeo plures filios et filias. Nichilominus, si viderem eos habere cibum in manu et scirem creatorem meum esurire, ego vtique auferrem cibum de manibus filiorum et gaudenter presentarem illum creatori meo.
Ego eciam habeo multas possessiones, quas dispono ad velle meum. Si tamen scirem voluntatem creatoris mei, libenter dimitterem velle meum et disponerem eas ad honorem eiusdem creatoris mei.'
Sed vide, filia, quid Deus fecit cum ista muliere pagana. Ipse enim misit ei vnum amicum suum, qui instruxit eam in fide sancta, et Deus ipse per se ipsum visitauit cor eius, sicut intelligere poteris ex verbis mulieris.
Nam quando ille vir Dei predicabat ei vnum esse Deum sine principio et sine fine, qui est creator omnium, respondit illa: 'Bene', inquit, 'est credibile, quod ille, qui me creauit et omnia, non habeat supra se creatorem, et bene est verisimile, quod vita sua est eterna, qui michi potuit dare vitam.'
Quando vero mulier audiuit, quod idem creator accepit humanitatem de virgine et quod ipse ore proprio predicabat, respondit:
'Bene est credendum Deo ad omnia opera virtuosa. Sed tu, amice Dei, dicito michi, qualia sunt verba illa, que de ore creatoris processerunt? Volo quippe dimittere voluntatem meam et obedire ei iuxta omnia verba oris eius.'
Tunc autem amico Dei predicante de passione et cruce Dei et de resurreccione eius, respondit mulier lacrimosis oculis et dixit: 'Benedictus sit Deus, qui sic pacienter ostendit caritatem suam in terris, quam habuit ad nos in celis.
Propterea, si prius dilexi eum, quia me creauit, nunc autem obligacior sum diligere eum, quia monstrauit michi viam rectam et me redemit sanguine suo. Teneor eciam seruire ei totis viribus et membris meis, quia me redemit omnibus membris suis.
Insuper et debitrix sum omne desiderium meum remouere a me, quod prius habui ad possessiones et filios et parentes, et solummodo desiderare creatorem meum in gloria sua et in illa vita, que non finitur.'"
Dixit eciam mater Dei: "Ecce filia, quod illa mulier multiplicem optinuit remuneracionem pro dileccione sua. Sic et cottidie datur retribucio vnicuique iuxta id, quod diligit Deum, cum in mundo viuit."
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