O Virgin of Virgins

We come to the end of our pilgrimage…  Wait; look!  Things are not always what they appear to be…  Right inside the center area of our circular pathway, previously unnoticed, another tree comes to light with a sign:  “O Virgin of Virgins!  The thing which you behold is a divine mystery.”  This is a majestic, splendid blue spruce, with bluish-green and silvery pine needles.  An ornamental evergreen, it is shaped like a pyramid, with horizontal branching to the ground.

“O Mother of Almighty God, you are a strong and lovely tree, the fruit of which is purest gold.  Whose branches spread to shelter us, whose quiet leaves all peace enfolds.”  Mary, you stand in a second garden, enclosed by the first; walled by the series of antiphonal titles for your Son.  You are the Christmas tree – laden with a most distinct, dignified, and peerless ornament!

O Virgin of Virgins, when the divine Child entered creation, for nine months your womb became more spacious than the heavens…  This is not geometry nor architecture – this is a divine mystery.  And one day, the seed from the dear weight you bear will fall to the earth and die.  Then, what fruit Jesus himself will bear – as the real Tree of Life!