The Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Thursday, September 8, 2022

Romans 8, 28-30

Brothers and sisters: We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined he also called; and those he called he also justified; and those he justified he also glorified.

Almighty God, in his wonderful Providence, creates those human beings whom he foresees will desire to be conformed to his Son through Baptism and holy lives and so will be saved, along with those who will reject this and so will be lost.  In this way, what St. Paul calls God’s “predestination” does not interfere with the free will of men and women or cause someone to be saved or damned.  Key to his plan of salvation was his creation of the Virgin Mary, whom, before all the ages, he foresaw would completely and freely subject herself to his will and so make a fitting Mother for his Incarnate Son.  He provided her with a superabundance of grace so that she would be free from the effects of Original Sin, aiding her in her subjection of herself to him as well as freeing her to possess the clear-sightedness she would need in order to discern his call to her.  

The Church has celebrated the Virgin Mary’s birthday since at least the 500’s.  Its placement by the Church on September 8 was made very early.

Since the Middle Ages, the Church has applied verses of the Biblical Song of Songs to her, using them in prayers and also liturgically.  Two verses from this lovely book particularly assist us in our devotion to her on this feast day: “One is my dove, my perfect one is but one, she is the only one of her mother, the chosen of her that bore her. The daughters saw her, and declared her most blessed: the queens and concubines, and they praised her. Who is she who comes forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array?”  Here, Almighty God calls her his “dove”, the dove signifying innocence and beauty, but also reminding us of the dove Noah released from the ark after the flood: it returned to him, carrying “a bough of an olive tree, with green leaves, in her mouth, by which Noah understood that the waters were ceased upon the earth” (Genesis 8, 11).  The Virgin Mary likewise brings to us the olive tree bough which is the Son of God who would restore peace between heaven and earth.  She is God’s “perfect one”, whom he created free from Original Sin and who never consented to sin.  She alone of all humans since Adam and Eve was created in this way.  “She is the only one of her mother.”  According to an ancient tradition, she was the only child of her parents Joachim and Anna.  “The daughters saw her, and declared her most blessed: the queens and concubines.”  Elizabeth, pregnant with John the Baptist, spoke for all humanity in declaring her blessed: “Blessed are you who have believed that those things shall be accomplished that were spoken to you by the Lord” (Luke 1, 45).  All humanity is signified by “queens and concubines”, saints and sinners, the high and the low.  “Who is she who comes forth as the morning rising?”  The .Virgin Mary is the dawn announcing the rising of the sun, the Son of God.  She is “fair as the moon”, shining as the example of holiness of life in the night of our life in this world.  She is “bright as the sun”, radiant with her virtues and her purity.  “Terrible as an army set in array”.  Terrible, that is, to the demons, who fear her.  She is prefigured by Judith, who saved her people from the Assyrians, cutting off the head of the enemy general Holofernes in his tent while preserving her virtue.

On the Feast of her Nativity, we ask her to lead us by her prayers and example to her Son, hanging on the Cross for us, so that we might love him the more.  

The traditional prayer for this Feast:

Bestow upon Your servants, we beseech You, O Lord, the gift of heavenly grace, that, as the child-bearing of the Blessed Virgin stood for the beginning of our salvation, so may the solemn feast of her Nativity bring about an increase of peace.

Through Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.