Mary's Birthday!

Hello Everyone:
Today is Mary's Birthday and a day we can all celebrate! I would like to start with the joyful news that my little grand-daughter was born yesterday - September 7th, the vigil of such a beautiful feast, and we are greatly blessed to be given this date by God. God has already favored this little one by giving her such a date. Her name is Noelle. Thank you for the prayers that were asked for, both mom and baby are doing well - just a bit tired.

In the Angelic Salutation we address Our Lady by saying, "Holy Mary"! We repeat the words day after day and even hurry over them, but do we think of the true meaning and the sublime force of these words as we are addressing the most highly-favored of the children of God!

Who can appraise the holiness of the one chosen to be the Mother of God? What must have been the sanctity of Her who would be the only near relation of the Blessed Trinity? What graces must have adorned the soul of Her who was divinely chosen to care for the Divine Child as He grew in wisdom and grace! Our Lord Jesus Christ is Mary's Son. Our Lord's human actions possessed a special sanctity because they were the actions of One Who was God Himself. And all of Mary's thoughts, words, and actions, all of Her desires and longings of Her Immaculate Soul were influenced by Her Immaculate Conception and Her union with Her Divine Son. Her entire life, as well as its various details, take their value from this union. She is God's Mother! We can not comprehend the richness of grace and sanctity that must have been and still is Hers. No wonder She was honored with Her Assumption! No wonder She was exalted by being crowned Queen of both Heaven and Earth with a crown of twelve stars!

During Her entire life, She has been asked to intercede for us. What words can tell the full force of Mary's power of intercession? Mary gave to God His human nature. Christ, Our Lord, was born of Her; flesh of Her flesh; blood of Her blood; bone of Her bone. Our Lord is Mediator by His own right and merits; but we have secondary mediators - that of the saints and God has given Mary a special rank among those saints as being their Mother as well. She has been appointed by God to be the Mediatrix of all grace. She intercedes for us. She pleads for us. May we thank God for such a beautiful Mother and for being an All Wise God Who knew we needed Her!

It is only right that we should on Mary's birthday talk about the privilege and reason for Her birth. She would want it no other way. Jesus was Her life. The sublime fact that She gave God everything including Her virginity is so sublime. God is so good that He could arrange for Her to offer Her virginity and still allow Her to be the Mother of God. We read in Holy Scripture that there is a song which is sung only by the virgins in their Heavenly home. We are told that they "follow the Lamb withersoever He goeth. They are purchased from among men, the first fruits to God and to the Lamb." (Apoc. 14, 4) This is so beautiful to meditate upon in light of the scandals that we see plagued in the Church today. May we pray especially for the Church!

St. Bernard writes: "No one will doubt that this song shall be sung by Her who is the Queen of Virgins, and that in this singing She will take the lead. But it seems to me, that, besides this song in which all the virgins join with their Queen, there is another more sweet and more sublime with which she alone shall gladden the City of God. No one else, even among the virgins, shall be found worthy to utter the melodious modulations of this second song. This is a right which belongs to Her alone who, alone among virgins, rejoices in being a mother, and in being the Mother of God. But She does not glory in herself; rather only in Him to Whom She has given birth. She glories in the Lord Who has made Himself Her Son, and Who, having prepared a singular glory for His Mother in Heaven, willed also to endow Her on earth with a singular grace whereby, in an ineffable manner She might conceive and bring forth without prejudice to Her virginity.

For the only nativity worthy of God was that which made Him Son of the Virgin, as the only Motherhood worthy of the Virgin was that which made Her Mother of God."  (Super Missus Est, Hom, 2, 1)

Thank you St. Bernard for your love of God and Our Lady! What an example you are for today and may none of us Catholics lose hope and find ourselves despairing over what is happening in the Church today. We have the saints - they are real and they hear our prayers. We were made for Heaven not this earth. Let our hearts and minds be lifted to Heaven. God will not be defeated. We are living in amazing times. It is time for true heroism and we are called to be those heroes. Let us lift our hearts and minds to God and beg Him through the intercession of our Queen and Mother and all the great saints before us to help our Church, its priests and its laity. May we rise from this calamity and seek holiness for ourselves and the Church.

Happy Birthday sweet Mother of God, continue to intercede for us and to pray for us. May God preserve the virgins today and call more to virginity - O Holy Virgin Mother of God - we love You and we thank our Heavenly Father for You!

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