Devotion to Our Lord in the Womb

Devotion to Our Lord in the Womb embraces a distinct and separate stage in the history of the Incarnation, writes English author and Jesuit priest Henry James Coleridge. Our Lord’s life in the womb of His Blessed Mother, he adds, is a part of His infinite condescension which calls for a corresponding devotion. Beginning with the Annunciation itself and ending on the eve of the Nativity, it covers the whole unborn life of Our Lord. This portion of His human existence is the period of His greatest humiliation and self-abasement. It is only natural that those who take up this special devotion should find themselves consoled and assisted in a wonderful degree by the practices and contemplations associated with it.

In this abridgment of the 1885 edition, Coleridge identifies the Incarnation as the greatest work of God. Indeed, he writes, it may be considered as the crown and completion of the creation of the universe. Christ was sent to earth for the redemption of mankind, and for their instruction in the manner of serving God perfectly. The eye of faith can see from the early life of Christ many holy and tender lessons of humility, obedience, silence, recollection, dependence, and other virtues.

The devotion to the infancy of Christ throws light on the position of the Blessed Mother in the Kingdom of her divine Son, His dependence on her and union with her, the immensity of her graces, and the supreme perfection of her virtues. Among other things, the author also discusses the preparation of St. Joseph for his high and special office in the accomplishment of the Incarnation and all that followed from it.