Friday 8 September 2023
Birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary | Day of penance
With delight I rejoice in the Lord. Micah 5:1-4. Psalm 12(13):6-7. Matthew 1:1-16, 18-23.
Mary – blessed among women
Today we celebrate the birthday of Mary, the Mother of God. In our tradition, she is born without original sin and is the mother of the salvation story. Her loving motherhood supported her son all his life and we know her as the first disciple of Jesus, a role she spent a lifetime perfecting. We know that she pondered many things in her heart as Luke tells us and that joy and suffering were her lot. We see her in the Pieta and in so many beautiful paintings; a woman of faith and duty, a woman who cooked and cleaned and laughed and loved; a woman of her time and a woman of our time because her example transcends the mere forward movement of history. She is our mother too, the model to which we aspire, in her calm and dignity and enduring love. She is blessed among women – the most famous woman in history, modest and magnificent. As we celebrate the birthdays of those we love, let us in turn say a special Hail Mary to this woman who stands with her son in an unassailable union of maternal and filial love.
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