First I have to note, on this Feast of the Nativity of the Most Blessed Virgin, that the football game last Saturday at Our Lady's University was more than pitiful. In fact, (and I remind you I was a student in 2007...though I try to forget that season) that was the worst I think I have seen them play. It was so bad Our Lady intervened with her tears and tried to make it stop. When that storm wasn't enough, God tried to make it stop. Ok... rant over.
Today we celebrate the Nativity of the Most Blessed Theotokos, the Mother of God, the Blessed Virgin, our Most Blessed Mother. Happy Birthday Mama!
So there we are. Virginity is alien to mothers and childbearing is strange for a virgin, but in You O Theotokos both are found! Therefore without ceasing we magnify Thee!
The only discussion of the Nativity of Our Lady can be found in the Protoevangelium of James where we read:
"The Birth of Mary the Holy Mother of God, and Very Glorious Mother of Jesus Christ.
1. In the records of the twelve tribes of Israel was Joachim, a man rich exceedingly; and he brought his offerings double, saying: There shall be of my superabundance to all the people, and there shall be the offering for my forgiveness to the Lord for a propitiation for me. For the great day of the Lord was at hand, and the sons of Israel were bringing their offerings. And there stood over against him Rubim, saying: It is not meet for you first to bring your offerings, because you have not made seed in Israel. And Joachim was exceedingly grieved, and went away to the registers of the twelve tribes of the people, saying: I shall see the registers of the twelve tribes of Israel, as to whether I alone have not made seed in Israel. And he searched, and found that all the righteous had raised up seed in Israel. And he called to mind the patriarch Abraham, that in the last day God gave him a son Isaac. And Joachim was exceedingly grieved, and did not come into the presence of his wife; but he retired to the desert, and there pitched his tent, and fasted forty days and forty nights, saying in himself: I will not go down either for food or for drink until the Lord my God shall look upon me, and prayer shall be my food and drink.
2. And his wife Anna mourned in two mournings, and lamented in two lamentations, saying: I shall bewail my widowhood; I shall bewail my childlessness. And the great day of the Lord was at hand; and Judith her maid-servant said: How long do you humiliate your soul? Behold, the great day of the Lord is at hand, and it is unlawful for you to mourn. But take this head-band, which the woman that made it gave to me; for it is not proper that I should wear it, because I am a maid-servant, and it has a royal appearance. And Anna said: Depart from me; for I have not done such things, and the Lord has brought me very low. I fear that some wicked person has given it to you, and you have come to make me a sharer in your sin. And Judith said: Why should I curse you, seeing that the Lord has shut your womb, so as not to give you fruit in Israel? And Anna was grieved exceedingly, and put off her garments of mourning, and cleaned her head, and put on her wedding garments, and about the ninth hour went down to the garden to walk. And she saw a laurel, and sat under it, and prayed to the Lord, saying: O God of our fathers, bless me and hear my prayer, as You blessed the womb of Sarah, and gave her a son Isaac.
3. And gazing towards the heaven, she saw a sparrow's nest in the laurel, Tobit 2:10 and made a lamentation in herself, saying: Alas! Who begot me? And what womb produced me? Because I have become a curse in the presence of the sons of Israel, and I have been reproached, and they have driven me in derision out of the temple of the Lord. Alas! To what have I been likened? I am not like the fowls of the heaven, because even the fowls of the heaven are productive before You, O Lord. Alas! To what have I been likened? I am not like the beasts of the earth, because even the beasts of the earth are productive before You, O Lord. Alas! To what have I been likened? I am not like these waters, because even these waters are productive before You, O Lord. Alas! To what have I been likened? I am not like this earth, because even the earth brings forth its fruits in season, and blesses You, O Lord.
4. And, behold, an angel of the Lord stood by, saying: Anna, Anna, the Lord has heard your prayer, and you shall conceive, and shall bring forth; and your seed shall be spoken of in all the world. And Anna said: As the Lord my God lives, if I beget either male or female, I will bring it as a gift to the Lord my God; and it shall minister to Him in holy things all the days of its life. 1 Samuel 1:11 And, behold, two angels came, saying to her: Behold, Joachim your husband is coming with his flocks. For an angel of the Lord went down to him, saying: Joachim, Joachim, the Lord God has heard your prayer. Go down hence; for, behold, your wife Anna shall conceive. And Joachim went down and called his shepherds, saying: Bring me hither ten she-lambs without spot or blemish, and they shall be for the Lord my God; and bring me twelve tender calves, and they shall be for the priests and the elders; and a hundred goats for all the people. And, behold, Joachim came with his flocks; and Anna stood by the gate, and saw Joachim coming, and she ran and hung upon his neck, saying: Now I know that the Lord God has blessed me exceedingly; for, behold the widow no longer a widow, and I the childless shall conceive. And Joachim rested the first day in his house.
5. And on the following day he brought his offerings, saying in himself: If the Lord God has been rendered gracious to me, the plate on the priest's forehead will make it manifest to me. And Joachim brought his offerings, and observed attentively the priest's plate when he went up to the altar of the Lord, and he saw no sin in himself. And Joachim said: Now I know that the Lord has been gracious unto me, and has remitted all my sins. And he went down from the temple of the Lord justified, and departed to his own house. And her months were fulfilled, and in the ninth month Anna brought forth. And she said to the midwife: What have I brought forth? And she said: A girl. And said Anna: My soul has been magnified this day. And she laid her down. And the days having been fulfilled, Anna was purified, and gave the breast to the child, and called her name Mary."
So there we are, precisely nine months after the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the BVM, we celebrate and honor her Birth. As Saint Andrew of Crete so eloquently puts it, "The present Feast forms a link between the New and the Old Testament. It shows that Truth succeeds symbols and figures and that the New Covenant replaces the Old. Hence, all creation sings with joy, exults, and participates in the joy of this day.... This is, in fact, the day on which the Creator of the world constructed His temple; today is the day on which by a stupendous project a creature becomes the preferred dwelling of the Creator"
"Τὸ δέ ἐστιν ἡ παροῦσα πανήγυρις, προοίμιον ἔχουσα τῆς Θεοτόκου τῆν γέννησιν· συμπέρασμα δὲ, τῆς τοῦ Λόγου πρὸς σάρκα συμπήξεως τὴν ἀπόταξιν. Παρθένος γὰρ ἄρτι γεννᾶται καὶ τιθηνεῖται καὶ πλάττεται, καὶ τῷ Θεῷ τῷ παμβασιλεῖ τῶν αἰώνων ἑτοιμάζεται μήτηρ."
From the Divine Office we read: "Nativitatem hodiernam * perpetuae Virginis Genitricis Dei Mariae solemniter celebremus, qua celsitudo throni processit, alleluia./// Let us this day keep solemnly * the Birth-day of Mary, Mother but still Maiden, her Birth, a step toward the loftiness of her throne. Alleluia.
So what is the point? What advantage, with regards to the Salvation History, does her birth bring to man?
Since Adam and Eve, mankind had been tainted with the corruptive stains of Original Sin. For thousands of years, we lived in an Old Testament world. Mankind, whether they knew it or not, anxiously awaited the promised Messiah of Old, the Eternal and Divine Son of God. Then at a certain blessed moment, Divine Providence decreed that a woman should be born who would deserve the coming of the Messiah. Her nativity represents the entrance into the world of the perfect creature who found grace before God and had merit sufficient to end that extensive wait. And just like that, we are sprung forth into a New Testament World. creature be born to be the Mother of the Savior. Therefore, the entrance of this exquisite creature into the world marks the presage of the Redemption. Her birth represents the entrance into the world of a new grace, a new blessing, a new presence that was an incomparable presage of the presence, blessing and grace that would come with the Savior.
With her birth, and her eventual naming of Mary, the Theotokos takes her first step towards her throne in Heaven. In this grand day, the new tabernacle of Our Lord, that Temple of the λόγος that unites the Old and the New, the beginning and the end, is created. This created being, this most lovely and pure creature, will bear her Creator and give Him up to the Wood of the Cross for our sins.
It is for this reason, that St. John Vianney says of the Feast that ""Your birth, O Blessed Virgin Mary, fills the whole world with a sweet consolation and a holy joy, because of you was born our Jesus, our God , who has taken away from us the curse in which we were plunged by the sin of our first parents, and filled us with all kinds of blessings."
Thus, it is not without great diligence that the Church assigns a Feast of Birth to the Blessed Virgin. This corresponds to the worship of hyperdulia that the Church reserves for her. The Church reserves the worship of latria, or adoration, only for God - for Our Lord Jesus Christ, therefore, Who is the Word Incarnate. The worship of dulia, or veneration, the Church assigns to the saints. But to Our Lady she has a worship that is neither the simple worship of dulia nor the supreme worship of latria, but rather the worship of hyperdulia, which is a higher veneration unparallel to any other.
Thus, Our Lady, worthy of the highest veneration, celebrates her birthday today and the world rejoices and praises God for so precious and beautiful a lily, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Theotokos that would bear our Savior, Jesus Christ Our Lord.
I know this was scattered, more so than usual, this was done amidst a myriad of other things I have to do here now that I am a fancy seminarian guy now o{]:)
God Bless in and in the joy of the Blessed Virgin Mary's Birth, please beat the you know what out of Michigan Notre Dame, please!!!
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