Saint Mary, Annunciation, Pentecost
by Ulrich Utiger

Annunciation (Russian Icon of Ustyug)

Page description
The purpose of Saint Mary's apparitions is to prepare the last Saints to a new effusion of the Holy Spirit like at Pentecost.

Contents of this page
The Annunciation and the virginal conception
The apparitions of the Lord and Pentecost
The sense of the phase of apparition

Short summary of the previous pages
It was pointed out that the whole history of salvation – from the beginning with Adam and Eve up to the Millennium – follows cycles of four typical phases, which take place within four vast eras (see Summary of Salvation History). These phases are the phase of beginning, which is relatively peaceful, the phase of sin, the phase of judgment and the phase of revival, which returns to peace. This fact will now successively be used to explain the apparitions of Saint Mary.

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Page 14

4.4. SAINT MARY AND THE HOLY SPIRIT

4.4.3. TWO NEW PHASES: APPARITION AND SPIRIT

The Annunciation and the virginal conception

Since the era of the spiritual kinship, the phase of beginning of each new cycle in reality subdivides in three phases: the phase of apparition, the phase of the arrival of the Holy Spirit and the phase of growth. These phases are as typical as the known ones and allow very revealing conclusions, notably on the Holy Virgin and her apparitions.

As we know, the first cycle of the fourth era consisted of the mission, the Passion and the resurrection of Jesus (see Summary of Salvation History). This cycle began with the announcement to Mary of Jesus' birth by the angel Gabriel, the Annunciation (Lk 1:26-38). Because of the celestial origin of Gabriel, this encounter with Saint Mary has to be qualified as an apparition. Another important point is that according to Gabriel the conception of Jesus had to be made not by a man but by the Spirit: "The Holy Spirit will come open you, and the power of the Most-High will overshadow you. Therefore the holy child to be born will be called the Son of God" (Lk 1:34-35).

It is probable that at the moment of this conception Saint Mary pronounced the Magnificat (Lk 1:46-55). There is indeed nothing in St. Luke’s account that clearly indicates this. However, when Mary visited Elizabeth to tell her of the encounter with Gabriel, who also had announced to Mary the pregnancy of Elizabeth (Lk 1:36-37), "filled with the Holy Spirit" she said to Mary: "Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb" (Lk 1:39-45). In reply to this proclamation, Saint Mary pronounced the Magnificat:

"My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden.
For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed,
for the Almighty has done great things for me.
Holy is his name,
and his mercy is one those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm,
he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts,
he has put down the mighty from their thrones,
and exalted those of low degree,
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent empty away.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
as he spoke to our fathers,
to Abraham and to his posterity for ever"
(Lk 1:46-55).

She must have been "filled with the Holy Spirit" even more than Elizabeth by saying these words. We can therefore consider this arrival of the Spirit as the moment when "the Most-High overshadowed" Mary provoking the virginal conception of God’s Son as announced by Gabriel (Lk 1:35). Various expressions of the Magnificat as for example: "For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed..." confirm this. She is blessed because she gave birth to Jesus. And when she is blessed "henceforth", it is evident that in the instant of this proclamation the Spirit came upon the Holy Virgin, provoking the conception of Jesus.

The place where these things happened confirms it too: Mary precipitated "into the hill country, to a city of Judah" to visit Elizabeth (Lk 1:39). This city was therefore close to Jerusalem. Indeed, it was always in Jerusalem or in its proximity each time when God came in this world or left it: Jesus is born in Bethlehem, which is also found in the mountainous region of Judah (Lk 2:4). And on the Mount of Olives, distanced from Jerusalem only "a Sabbath day’s walk" (Acts 1:12), he ascended to heaven to return one day in the same manner (Acts 1:11-12). At last, in the same city the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles (Acts 2:1-6). So we can suppose that the conception of the Son of God did not happen in the city where Saint Mary lived, that is to say in Nazareth (Lk 1:26), which is far from Jerusalem, and sometime after the Annunciation, at a moment and a place we would ignore. The Visitation hence must have a deeper sense than a simple visit.

Consequently, between the Annunciation and the conception a certain time passed, which allows to distinguish the phase of apparition from the phase of arrival of the Spirit. Then Jesus is born. This is still another phase, to which belongs also the time until his public mission approximately thirty years after. This phase is characterized by the growth of what was sown by the Spirit. Then follow the crucifixion, judgment and resurrection, at which ends this first cycle.

The apparitions of the Lord and Pentecost

The apparitions of Jesus during forty days (Acts 1:2) already form part of the following cycle by incorporating of course the phase of apparition, which ended with Ascension. During these apparitions, Jesus announced the arrival of the Spirit to his disciples (Lk 24:49; Acts 1:8), the Counselor, who replaced the presence of Jesus on earth after his departure to Heaven (Jn 16:7). This was realized with Pentecost, which of course equals the phase of arrival of the Spirit.

It’s said that the Church was born at this moment. Yet this is vague, for it was only conceived, the birth belonging to the phase of growth. We can compare this with the birth of a human being: one would say that man, from his conception up to the age of his full maturity, which varies according to biological and psychological criteria, belongs to a single period characterized by a constant growth. Nevertheless his birth inaugurates a step that distinguishes itself from his stay under the cover of his mother, for at this moment he emerges from the dark and what was invisible becomes visible.

The same is true for the conception and the birth of the Church: before its birth, it was invisible and the Holy Spirit did his work. The primitive Church of Jerusalem only exteriorized with the first Council, which was held at Jerusalem and united Paul, the Apostles and a lot of other people to examine the question whether Christians should be circumcised and observe the Mosaic law (Acts 15:1-6). The decision was the liberation of this law except for some details, which were formulated in writing (Acts 15:7-30). Only through such measures was born the Church, the mystical body of Christ, to more and more become a sacramental and visible institution.

	First cycle	Second cycle
Phase of apparition	Announcement of the birth of Jesus by Gabriel	Jesus appears during forty days
Phase of Spirit	Virginal conception of Jesus	Pentecost
Phase of growth	The life of Jesus	The Church of Jerusalem
Phase of sin	Arrest, flagellation and crucifixion of Jesus	Persecutions against the Christians by the Jews
Phase of judgment	Darkening of the sun, earthquake, etc.	Siege of Jerusalem by the Romans
Phase of revival	resurrection	Receive of the Gospel by Pagans

Figure 15

By summarizing, we retain that the analogy between the first and the second cycle is emphasized by the two new phases (see figure 15) and that the question quite naturally rises whether the third and the fourth cycle also include the two phases of apparition and arrival of the Spirit. As for the third cycle, it is difficult to reply. Yet one knows that the apparitions of the Virgin ascend until the first centuries of our era and that writings exist that she appeared to some Apostles. Concerning the fourth cycle, there are many apparitions of Saint Mary. We are going to detail a few of them further on.

The sense of the phase of apparition

This sense depends on the sense of the rebirth by the Spirit, who causes man to become a child adopted by God (Gal 4:4-7). The Spirit does not, however, come unexpectedly. His reception requires preparation. Thus is explained the Annunciation: Gabriel prepared the Holy Virgin to receive the Holy Spirit. Without this preparation, she would not have visited Elizabeth and felt the anticipated joy necessary for the conception. This joy comes from the faith in the announced words. And as we know, Saint Mary perfectly believed in what Gabriel predicted to her. In that, she distinguishes from Eve – and of all other women – who did not believe in God’s word but let herself be seduced by the lies of the snake, that is to say of Satan, who perhaps appeared to Eve. So, to receive the Spirit it is necessary to have the faith, which is a very important point.

The apparitions of the Lord during forty days also served to establish the faith, for although Jesus healed blinds, paraplegics, mutes, lepers, possessed, etc. before the eyes of his disciples, the latter hesitated to believe what Jesus told and retold them. For example, they did not grant faith in his numerous announcements that he would die and resuscitate the third day (Mt 16:21-23; 17:22-23; 20:17-19), for if they had believed in him, they would not have left him at his Passion (Mt 26:31-35). And even when the women told them that they had found the tomb empty and seen two angels reproaching them: "Why do you seek the Living among the dead?", they refused to believe, qualifying their purposes as "nonsense" (Lk 24:1-11).

Only Jesus’ apparitions installed their faith, although they were still hesitant, as Thomas demonstrates (Jn 20:19-29). Thus, their sadness changed to joy (Jn 16:20). And they needed nothing more than to "ask and receive" to render their joy "complete" (Jn 16:23-26). They asked by being "constantly in the temple to bless God" after Ascension (Lk 24:53; Acts 1:14). This is why the Spirit, who they had to receive, did not delay arriving. Thus, that is to say at Pentecost, their joy became complete.

The sense of the apparitions consequently resides in obtaining faith as preparation for the reception of the Spirit. Thus we can say that to be born from above two persons are necessary, namely the one who appears and God who sends his Spirit. This allows an important comparison: the spiritual birth is indeed the second birth and it is prefigured by the first one, which we owe to our natural mother and father (see The spiritual rebirth). So God the Father holding the paternal role during this second birth, the appearing person is appropriate to assume the maternal role.