FOURTEENTH DAY. MARY AT BETHLEHEM. GOD resolved to confer on mankind the most signal and loving benefit of the Incarnation, and came down upon earth into the desert of this world like a celestial manna, that He might become our food, during our journey to the promised land of Paradise. Our adorable Saviour rendered Himself visible to us at His birth, as a beautiful little Infant, lying in a manger, and this was in the night, when the world was covered with darkness. The Divine Nature of Our Lord Jesus Christ is represented by the honey contained in the manna--because honey is a celestial liquor gathered by the bees from flowers, and it is not distilled from their sap, but collected by them as it descends from heaven with the dew. In like manner the Divine Nature of our adorable Redeemer came down from Heaven, at the moment of the Incarnation, upon this blessed flower of the earth, the Most Holy Virgin, and, having become united with a human nature, preserved it in the bosom of the Most Chaste Mary, as a sweet hive, during the space of nine months. But let us consider more at length this miracle of Divine Mercy. The Most Holy Mother of God gave birth to her Divine Son as the stars produce their light; and on this account her name Mary truly signifies Star of the Sea, or Morning Star. The star of the sea is the Polar star, towards which the mariner's needle continually turns; and through this star those who navigate the ocean know how their course is directed. The Patriarchs, Prophets, and Fathers of the Church turned their eyes towards the Most Holy Virgin, and she was ever the Polar Star and the chosen Port for all poor mortals who navigate the sea of this miserable world, and by her means they may avoid those shipwrecks which occur so often on the rocks and precipices of sin. Mary was, also, that beautiful Morning Star which brought the joyful news of the coming of the Sun of Justice. The Prophets knew well that a Virgin would conceive and give birth to a Son, at once God and Man, through the operation of the Holy Ghost, and would still remain a Virgin, though she became a Mother: _Ecce Virgo concipiet et pariet Filium et vocabitur ejus Emanuel._ How should He Who selected her for His Mother, on account of her virginity, impair her integrity? How could the Eternal Word, Purity itself, lessen the virginal purity of His Mother? From eternity He is generated and virginally produced in the bosom of His Father; and although receiving from Him the Divinity, it is not divided, but the Word is always one and the same God with the Father. The Most Holy Virgin here on earth also produces virginally her Divine Son, Our Lord. There is this difference, however, that He will never again enter the bosom of Mary, but He will be eternally generated in the bosom of His Father, being One with Him, in virtue of the unity of the Divine Essence.