Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son,
and they shall name Him Immanuel,
which means “God is with us.”
MATTHEW 1 : 23
Today’s passage from Micah is a prophecy of the coming Messiah. When Mary gave birth to Jesus, this prophecy was fulfilled. By celebrating Mary’s birthday today, the Church reminds us that the Son of God is born of a woman—a woman conceived and born free from all sin. Our celebration of Mary’s birthday shows our faith in the Word who became flesh, fully human, for our sake. (Kerygma 2023)
Mary walked with Jesus through His ministry.
Today we celebrate the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Let us take a moment to reflect on Mary as a model for our discipleship. She is humble and obedient to God’s call, and so should we. She is our mother and the Mother of the Church. Let us ask for her powerful intercession.
Mary’s role in the work of salvation is more than just being the Mother of God. Just as Mary walked with Jesus through His ministry, so should we walk with one another and support each other in our journeys. Solidarity in ministry is important — ministry can be a soul-destroying reality when people seem to ignore the Gospel rather than embrace it. Let us persevere and pray that the seeds of faith we have planted will one day sprout and grow into faith. (Kerygma 2015)
Never rule out the possibility that God has an important plan for your life.
The birthday of Mary is a great time to thank God for the gift she is to us as the Mother of God, the Mother of the Church, and our mother. Hopefully we are able to draw strength and inspiration from the holiness of her life. She was a very simple person, but this did not stop her from having the most significant role in the work of salvation. We should never rule out the possibility that God has an important plan for our lives as well.
Expect the Spirit to be at work in your life every time you respond to God’s will for you.
We do not have any writings concerning the birth of Mary but we do have the birth of Jesus in the Gospels. It is important to note the role of the Holy Spirit, which gives us an indication that we can expect the Spirit to be at work in our lives every time we respond to God’s will for us. Hopefully we can remember this as it is helpful to know the Spirit is around, especially when following God’s will becomes difficult. (Kerygma-2014)
Remember that Mary desires to help us through her intercession to grow closer to Jesus and serve the Gospel more fully.
We celebrate the birthday of Mary because of the central role she plays in the mystery of our faith. We do not know a lot about her, but what we do know is enough to inspire us by her example. As we honor her today on her birthday, let us remember that Mary desires to help us through her intercession to grow closer to Jesus and serve the Gospel more fully. (Kerygma-2012)
Lord, thank You for giving us Your Mother Mary as our Mother, too. May she become more and more my inspiration and model.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOTHER MARY!
Nobody knows when and where the Virgin Mary was born. No birth certificates were issued in her time. Was she born in Nazareth or in nearby Sepphoris, where a church honors her parents Joachim and Anne who are said to have lived there? We don’t know.
September 8 was chosen because in the fifth century, a church in Jerusalem was dedicated on this day, which was said to have been built above the place where Mary was born. Nazareth, Sepphoris, Jerusalem? Nobody knows. And we don’t need to know.
The Church presents us today with the genealogy of Jesus. Matthew mentions four women in this genealogy: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba. Tamar disguised herself as a temple prostitute to have intercourse with her father-in-law and produced a son. Rahab was a prostitute in Jericho, Ruth was a Moabite, an archenemy of the Israelites, and Bathsheba committed adultery with King David. In these four sinful women, the curse of Eve’s sin becomes visible. Sin begets sin, an endless, ever escalating curse. And then Matthew mentions a fifth woman: Mary. With her, the ancient curse of sin is finally broken and transformed into a chain of blessings. With her sinlessness and obedience to God’s plans, salvation dawns. The Second Vatican Council states that Mary “is inseparably linked with her Son’s saving work.”
Every human birth is a call for joy and new hope. Loving parents have shown hope in a world filled with sorrow, suffering, wars and hopelessness. The newborn child has the potential to become a channel of God’s love in this often dark world. This was especially true when Mary was born. She foreshadows God’s love for mankind that was manifested in her Son Jesus.
On this joyful day, let us try to bring some joy and hope into our world by making somebody happy — somebody who suffers or is lonely, who is weighed down by failure and rejection. Yes, bring “joy to the world” as Mary’s birth did. Fr. Rudy Horst, SVD
REFLECTION QUESTIONS: Who is Mary for you? Do you have just a sentimental attitude towards her, or do you try to imitate her humility and faith?
Nativity of Mary
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Nativity of Mary, or Birth of the Virgin Mary refers to the traditional birthday of Saint Mary.
The modern canon of scripture does not record Mary's birth. The earliest known account of Mary's birth is found in the Protoevangelium of James (5:2), an apocryphal text from the late second century, with her parents known as Saint Anne and Saint Joachim.
In the case of saints, the Church commemorates their dies natalis or date of death, with Saint John the Baptist and the Virgin Mary as the few whose birth dates are commemorated. The reason for this is found in the singular mission each had in salvation history, but traditionally also because these alone (besides the prophet Jeremiah, Jer 1:5) were holy in their very birth (for Mary, see Immaculate Conception; John was sanctified in Saint Elizabeth's womb according to the traditional interpretation of Lk 1:15).
The “Protoevangelium of James,” which was probably put into its final written form in the early second century, describes Mary's father Joachim as a wealthy member of one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. He and his wife Anne were deeply grieved by their childlessness.
Tradition celebrates the event as a liturgical feast in the General Roman Calendar and in most Anglican liturgical calendars on 8 September, nine months after the solemnity of her Immaculate Conception, celebrated on 8 December. The Eastern Orthodox likewise celebrate the Nativity of the Theotokos on 8 September.
This feast, like that of the Assumption of Mary, originated in Jerusalem. It began in the fifth century as the feast of the Basilica Sanctae Mariae ubi nata est, now called the Basilica of Saint Anne. The original church built, in the fifth century, was a Marian basilica erected on the spot known as the shepherd's field and thought to have been the home of Mary's parents. In the seventh century, the feast was celebrated by the Byzantines as the feast of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The feast is also celebrated by Syrian Christians on 8 September and by Coptic and Ethiopian Orthodox Christians on 9 May (1 Bashans, EC 1 Ginbot). At Rome the Feast began to be kept toward the end of the 7th century, brought there by Eastern monks. The feast is also included in the Tridentine Calendar for 8 September.
The winegrowers in France called this feast "Our Lady of the Grape Harvest". The best grapes are brought to the local church to be blessed and then some bunches are attached to hands of the statue of Mary. A festive meal which includes the new grapes is part of this day.
The scene was frequently depicted in art, as part of cycles of the Life of the Virgin. Late medieval depictions are often valuable records of domestic interiors and their fittings - at this period the setting was often in a wealthy household.
Published:
September 08, 2015, 7:40 AM
September 08, 2014, 7:23AM
September 08, 2014, 7:23AM
