“The Old and the New Testaments form a single tree. The flowering comes about in the fullness of time, and the one flower is Mary. The fruit that follows from it is Jesus. The tree of humanity was created in the image of God. In the fullness of time, at the flowering, there comes about unity between heaven and earth, and the Holy Spirit weds Mary. We have therefore a single flower: Mary. And a single fruit: Jesus. But Mary, although she is one, is the whole creation in synthesis at the apex of its beauty when she is presented as bride to her Creator. […] Thus Mary is the flower blossoming upon the tree of humanity, born of God who created the first seed in Adam. She is daughter of God her son. Looking upon a small geranium plant that bloomed with a red flower, a question came to my mind and I asked: “Why are you flowering in red? Why do you change from green to red?” It seemed so strange to me! Today I understood that all of humanity flowers in Mary. Mary is the flower of humanity. She, the Immaculate – the Unstained One, is the flower of the ‘maculate’ – the stained. Sinful humanity flowers in Mary, the All Beautiful! And as the red flower is grateful to the small green plant, with its dirt-covered roots, that brought it to bloom; so is Mary because it was sin that constrained God into thinking of Mary. To her we owe our health; to us she owes her life.” Source: Chiara Lubich, Mary Flower of Humanity