Summary: This reflection explores the parallel between physical virginity and spiritual virginity, showing how the soul must undergo purification to enter into union with God. Mary’s perpetual virginity, her faith, and her love serve as the model and gift that allow us to approach spiritual marriage with Christ. Through interior purity and openness to the Holy Spirit, the soul gradually conforms to Mary’s example, drawing ever closer to divine intimacy.
In Catholic spiritual theology, virginity is not merely a physical reality; it carries a profound spiritual significance. The distinction between the virginity of the body and the virginity of the soul is crucial. Physical virginity in the woman, designed by God, is preserved for the marital encounter and its fruitfulness. Yet, beyond this, there exists a spiritual virginity — an interior purity in which the Holy Spirit alone acts, freely and without constraint.
Physical virginity, while itself not salvific, serves as a visible analogy for the deeper reality of the soul’s preparation for union with God. Just as the body is meant to remain intact and reserved until entering the covenant of marriage, so the soul must undergo purification before it can enter the covenant of spiritual marriage with Christ. This is not merely symbolic: it is a law of readiness that applies to the interior life. There is a threshold that cannot be crossed lightly; spiritual intimacy requires preparation, purification, and growth.
The example of Moses, instructed to remove his sandals before approaching God, illustrates the necessity of purification before drawing near to the divine. The soul must cultivate spiritual virginity — a state of openness and receptivity — in order to espouse Christ and bear fruit in the life of grace.
Mary’s perpetual virginity — before, during, and after the birth of Christ — is a dogma of the Church that speaks not only to history but also to spiritual reality. To read it merely physically is to miss its depth. The dogma points to a profound interior truth: Mary is the model of the soul perfectly open to God. Her virginity signifies that she is entirely disposed to the action of the Holy Spirit, that no human attachment or distraction interferes with divine operation. The dogma thus invites believers to a spiritual reading: just as Mary’s body remained untouched, her soul remained fully surrendered to God, offering a living example of spiritual virginity for all who seek union with Him.
St John of the Cross says that in Mary the Holy Spirit alone operates No human pride, obstacle, impurity, desire, or attachment obstructs Him; her soul is entirely receptive, a vessel wholly conformed to God’s will. This makes Mary not only the Mother of God but also the supreme model of spiritual virginity: a soul purified and fully available to divine action. For those on the path of spiritual formation, her example shows that interior purity is the condition for fruitful union with Christ.
St John of the Cross also provides a roadmap for the soul’s journey: purification comes first, clearing obstacles and attachments; then follows spiritual betrothal, the subtle visits of the Holy Spirit preparing the bride, and finally spiritual marriage. Each stage requires cultivating interior virginity — openness, humility, and readiness to receive God fully.
The physical virginity designed by God in the body of a woman offers a powerful analogy for this process. It is a concrete, visible sign of the necessity for preparation, highlighting the gravity of entering into intimate union. The soul’s virginity is subtler, interior, often invisible, yet it obeys the same law: nothing can be fully received without purification, nothing bears true fruit without readiness. Physical virginity thus becomes a transposable image — a guide for understanding the progression of the soul toward spiritual marriage with God.
In this way, purification is nothing less than a “becoming-virgin” of the soul, a “becoming-Marian.” The deeper the soul progresses in detachment, humility, and interior openness, the more it resembles Mary in allowing the Holy Spirit to act freely within it. The path toward union with God is a gradual return to the Virginity of the Virgin Mary, like a curve approaching its asymptote: ever closer, yet fully realized only in God.
Note: When we say the soul’s journey toward spiritual virginity is “like a curve approaching its asymptote,” we are using a simple image from mathematics to illustrate a spiritual truth. In mathematics, a curve tends toward a line — the asymptote — ever closer, but never fully reaches it. The line represents the ideal, the perfect standard toward which the curve moves. In spiritual life, however, the metaphor takes on a richer meaning. The perfection of Mary’s virginity is not distant or unattainable; it is given to us. Her eyes — representing faith — and her heart — representing love — are offered as the conditions for the soul’s realisation of union with God. Mary is the dwelling place of the Groom, the one who makes the soul capable of receiving divine intimacy. As St. Thérèse says, “the virtues of the mother belong to the child: am I not your child?” Through her, we participate in the fullness of spiritual virginity, drawing ever closer to the ideal of union with Christ, even while our own purification continues.
Ultimately, the integration of body and soul, of visible sign and invisible reality, illuminates the profound connection between preparation, purity, and divine fruitfulness. Physical virginity teaches the soul the law of receptivity; spiritual virginity enables it. The two together reveal the profound wisdom in God’s design, guiding every human person toward the fullness of union with Him.
Conclusion
In sum, the journey of spiritual virginity is not merely an imitation of physical purity, but a progressive conformity to the interior purity of Mary, the Virgin who alone fully welcomes the action of the Holy Spirit. Just as the human soul moves toward her as toward an asymptote — ever closer, ever more drawn by her faith and love — so too are we called to purification, openness, and receptivity. By receiving her eyes of faith and her heart of love, we are enabled to enter into true spiritual marriage with Christ, allowing the Holy Spirit to dwell freely and fruitfully within us. Mary’s example, her perpetual virginity, and her role as the burning bush illuminate the path: the more we draw near, the more our souls become a dwelling place for God, and the closer we approach the fullness of divine union.
37. 3- The Spirit’s Special Presence in the Blessed Virgin Mary
John Paul II: General Audience — 18th April 1990
We have already seen that a correct and careful reading of the “Incarnation event” reveals truths about the Holy Spirit as well as truths about Christ the God-Man. The truths about Christ and the truths about the Holy Spirit make up the single mystery of the Incarnation. It is revealed to us in the New Testament and especially—as a biographical and historical fact, full of mysterious truths—in Matthew’s and Luke’s narratives of Jesus’ conception and birth. We acknowledge it in our profession of faith in Christ, the eternal Son of God, when we say that he was made man by being conceived and born of Mary “by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
That mystery shines through the account which the evangelist Luke devotes to Mary’s annunciation, as an event occurring within the context of a deep, sublime personal relationship between God and Mary. The narrative casts light also on the personal relationship which God wants to have with every person.
God is present in all beings as the principle and the one who sustains their existence according to the nature of each. He makes himself present in a new way in each person who opens himself up to him and becomes his follower, welcoming the gift of grace by which he is able to know and love him supernaturally, as guest of the soul transformed into a holy temple [1] . But in Christ’s humanity God brings about a still higher and more perfect indwelling—and a unique one, uniting it to himself in the person of the eternal Word-Son (cf. Summa Theol., I, q. 8, a. 3, ad 4; III, q. 2, a. 2). One can say that he brought about a union and a special and privileged indwelling in Mary during the Incarnation of the Word, in the conception and birth of Jesus Christ, whose Father he alone is. It is a mystery which stands out when the Incarnation is considered in its fullness.
Let us reflect once more on the passage from Luke. It describes and documents God’s very personal relationship with the Virgin, to whom his messenger communicated the call to be the mother of the Messiah, the Son of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit. On the one hand God communicated himself to Mary in the Trinity of Persons, which Christ one day would make more clearly known in their unity and distinction. The angel Gabriel announced to Mary that by God’s will and grace she will conceive and bear him who will be acknowledged to be the Son of God; and that will happen by the power, that is by virtue, of the Holy Spirit, who, by overshadowing her, will cause her to be the human mother of this child. The term “Holy Spirit” resounds in Mary’s soul as a Person’s name; that is a new element compared to the tradition of Israel and the writings of the Old Testament. It is an anticipated revelation for her, who is allowed to share in what is at least a dim perception of the mystery of the Trinity.
In particular the Holy Spirit, who is made known in Luke’s words reflected in the discovery which Mary made, appears as the one who, in a certain sense, “overcomes the distance” between God and man. It is the Person through whom God draws near to man in his humanity to “give himself as a gift” in his very divinity to man, and to bring about in every human being a new form of union and presence (cf. St. Thomas, Summa Theol., q. 43, a. 3). Mary is privileged in this discovery by reason of the divine indwelling and her union with God in her motherhood. In view of this very high vocation, she was given a special grace which the angel recognised in his greeting (cf. Lk 1:28). And all this is the work of the Holy Spirit, the principle of grace in every person.
In Mary the Holy Spirit descended and acted, chronologically speaking, even before the Incarnation, that is, from the moment of her Immaculate Conception. But that happens in view of Christ, her Son, in the extra-temporal sphere of the mystery of the Incarnation. For her the Immaculate Conception constituted, in advance, a participation in the benefits of the Incarnation and redemption, as the highpoint and fullness of the “self-gift” which God makes to man. And that is accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit. The angel said to Mary: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be call holy, the Son of God” (Lk 1:35).
In the Lucan passage, among other truths, there is also the fact that God waited for an act of consent on the part of the Virgin of Nazareth. In the books of the Old Testament which refer to births under extraordinary circumstances, there are cases where parents because of their age are no longer capable of generating the desired offspring. From the case of Isaac, born to Abraham and Sarah in their already advanced old age, we arrive at the threshold of the New Testament with John the Baptist, born of Zechariah and Elizabeth, these, too, of advanced age.
In Mary’s annunciation something very different occurs. Mary gave herself completely to God in her virginity. To become the mother of God’s Son, she did not have to do more than what was asked of her: give her consent to what the Holy Spirit will accomplish in her with his divine power.
Thus the Incarnation, the Holy Spirit’s work, includes an act of free will on the part of Mary, a human being. A human being (Mary) responded consciously and freely to God’s action; she welcomed the Holy Spirit’s power.
In asking for a conscious and free response, God respected in her and brought to its highest expression the “dignity of causality” which he himself gives to all beings and especially to human beings. On the other hand, that beautiful answer by Mary: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38) is already itself a fruit of the power of the Holy Spirit within her in her will and heart. It is an answer given by grace and in grace, which comes from the Holy Spirit. But this did not make it cease being an authentic expression of her freedom as a human creature, a conscious act of free will. The inner action of the Holy Spirit aimed to ensure that Mary’s response—and that of every human being whom God calls—is precisely what it ought to be. It expressed in the most compete fashion possible the personal maturity of an enlightened and pious conscience, which knew how to give itself without reservation. This is mature love. The Holy Spirit, giving himself to the human will as (uncreated) Love, ensures that created love is born and grows in the subject; at the same time this action, as an expression of human will, constitutes the person’s spiritual fullness. Mary gave her answer of love in a perfect way, and thus became the shining type for every person’s personal relationship with God.
The “Nazareth event,” described by Luke in the Gospel of the annunciation, is therefore a perfect image—and we can call it the model—of the God-man relationship. God wills that this relationship be founded in every person on the gift of the Holy Spirit, but also on personal maturity. At the threshold of the new covenant the Holy Spirit gave Mary a gift of immense spiritual greatness. He obtained from her an action of dedication and loving obedience, which is an example for all those who are called to faith and to the following of Christ, now that “the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn 1:14). After the earthly mission of Jesus and Pentecost, the call, God’s “self-gift,” the action of the Holy Spirit which continues the Nazareth event will be repeated throughout the whole future of the Church. And it will always have to be that man’s answer to the call and to God’s gift be given with the same personal maturity which radiated throughout the fiat of the Virgin of Nazareth during the annunciation.
[1] cf. St. Thomas, Summa Theol., I, q. 8, a. 3, ad 4; q. 38, a. 1; q. 43, a. 3
38. 4- The Holy Spirit and Mary: Model of the Nuptial Union of God with Humanity
John Paul II, General Audience, 2nd May 1990
1. The revelation of the Holy Spirit in the Annunciation is united to the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God and the divine maternity of Mary. We are able to see, in the Gospel of St. Luke, the angel says to the Virgin: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you” (Lk 1:35). It is also the action of the Holy Spirit which provokes her response, in which is manifested a conscious act of human freedom: “Let it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38). Therefore, in the Annunciation we find the perfect “model” of what the personal God-man relationship is meant to be.
2. Even in the Old Testament this relationship expresses a unique quality. It is born in the terrain of the Covenant of God with the chosen people (Israel). And this Covenant in the prophetic texts is expressed with nuptial symbolism: it is presented as the nuptial bond between God and humanity. It is important to remember this in order to understand the depth and beauty of the reality of the Incarnation of the Son as a particular fullness (plentitude) of the action of the Holy Spirit.
3. According to the prophet Jeramiah, God says to his people: “With eternal love I have loved you; so I have kept my mercy toward you. I will return to you and rebuild you, virgin of Israel” (Jer 31:3-4). From the historical point of view, we should place this text in relation to the fall of Israel and the deportation to Assyria, which humiliates the chosen people, to the extent of believing themselves abandoned by God. But God encourages them, speaking as Father or Husband to the young beloved. The spousal analogy becomes even more clear and explicit in the words of Isaiah, directed, during the time of the Babylonian exile, toward Jerusalem as to a wife who had not remained faithful to the God of the Covenant: “For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name… The Lord calls you back, like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, a wife married in youth and then cast off, says your God. For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back. In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness, I will have compassion on you, says the Lord your Redeemer” (Is 54:5-8).
4. It is emphasised in the cited texts that the nuptial love of the God of the Covenant is “eternal.” Facing the sin of his wife, facing the infidelity of the chosen people, God allows painful experiences to come upon them, but in spite of that he assures them, through the prophets, that his love does not cease. He overcomes the evil of sin to renew his gift. The prophet Hosea declares with an even more explicit language: “I will espouse you to me forever; I will espouse you in justice and in righteousness, in love and in compassion; I will espouse you to me in fidelity, and you will know the Lord” (Hos 2:21-22).
5. These extraordinary prophetic texts from the Old Testament reach their true fulfillment in the mystery of the Incarnation. The nuptial love of God toward Israel, but also toward every man, is brought about in the Incarnation in a way that exceeds the measure of man’s expectations. We discover this in the pages of the Annunciation, where the New Covenant is presented to us as the Nuptial Covenant of God with man, of divinity with humanity. In the context of this nuptial covenant, the Virgin of Nazareth, Mary, is the “virgin-Israel” par excellence of Jeremiah’s prophecy. God’s nuptial love, announced by the prophets, is concentrated on her perfectly and definitively. She is also the virgin-bride to whom it is granted conceiving and bearing forth the Son of God: the unique fruit of the nuptial love of God toward humanity, represented and summarised comprehensively as it were in Mary.
6. Descending upon Mary in the Annunciation, the Holy Spirit is the One who, in the Trinitarian relationship, expresses in his Person God’s nuptial love, that love that is “eternal.” In that moment the Holy Spirit is, in a unique way, the God-Spouse. In the mystery of the Incarnation the Holy Spirit effects the human conception of the Son of God while maintaining the divine transcendence. Luke’s text expresses this in a precise way: the nuptial nature of the love of God has a completely spiritual and supernatural nature. What John will come to say about Christ’s believers applies all the more to the Son of God, who was conceived in the womb of the Virgin “not by the desire of the flesh, nor by the desire of man, but rather born of God” (Jn 1:13). But above all, this expresses the supreme union of love, brought about between God and a human being by the work of the Holy Spirit.
7. In this divine espousing of humanity, Mary responds to the announcement of the angel with the love of a bride, capable of responding and adapting perfectly to the divine election. As a result of all of this, from the time of St. Francis of Assisi, the Church calls the Virgin the “spouse of the Holy Spirit.” Only this perfect nuptial love, profoundly rooted in the complete virginal self-giving to God, could enable Mary to become the “Mother of God” in a conscious and worthy way, in the mystery of the Incarnation.
8. In the Encyclical Redemptoris Mater I wrote: “The Holy Spirit had already come down upon her, and she became his faithful spouse at the Annunciation, welcoming the Word of the true God, offering ‘the full submission of intellect and will … and freely assenting to the truth revealed by him,’ indeed abandoning herself totally to God through ‘the obedience of faith,’ whereby she replied to the angel: ‘Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word’” (26).
9. Mary, with this act and gesture, totally reverses the act of Eve, and becomes, in the spiritual history of humanity, the new Bride, the new Eve, Mother of all the living, as the Doctors and Fathers of the Church have stated frequently. She will be the type and model, in the New Covenant, of the nuptial union of the Holy Spirit with each of us and with all of the human community, far beyond the context understood in ancient Israel: all individuals and all peoples will be called to receive the gift and to benefit from it in a new community of believers who have received the “power to become children of God” (Jn 1:12) and in baptism have been reborn “of the Spirit” (Jn 3:3) forming the family of God.