After the Sabbath meal, Mary demurely withdraws to allow her father, Joachim, and his guests to discuss the symbolic intricacies of the Holy Torah.
In the privacy of her bedroom, she gazes in wonder – for a long time – through the window at the mysterious six-pointed star which beckons to her from the indigo sky, exhaling a magical power of sun-sharp brilliance; and within G–d’s purity, she sees the folds of Gabriel’s robe but dares not lift her eyes.
As she swoons into a dream-trance, a tender joy fills her:
’Thou hast conceived a Holy Child, Mary, daughter of Joachim and Ann, for G–d has found thee worthy’ – gentle vibration hushing like whispering ocean waves – ‘and this Child shall bring a condensed form of the Holy Torah to the pagan world. He shall speak in parables which only a few will understand.‘The blind shall see but the sighted shall not; the deaf shall hear but those woh hear shall created a babel of dissonance. He shall touch many hearts but out of the ignorance of their love, they shall crucify Him spiritually again and again with their cruelty ...
‘If will be wonderful; it will be terrible and there will come a time when men will have to decide to devour and destroy or to love and surive.’
That same night, a similar insight touches Joseph – and he knows he will marry Mary and be the earthly custodian of the Pure Soul conceived; and he is not afraid, aware that he will know Her as a man knows a woman – for the spiritual purity of tender union is dear in the Eyes of the Lord ...