8 Sept – Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

nativity of mary smStop for a moment.  Consider what our eternal prospects were before the birth not only of Our Lord, but also before the birth of His Mother, from whom He took our human nature, the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Ponder the state of slavery to sin in which we were bound and, after death, the strong possibility of everlasting separation from God.

Given what our prospects were, celebrating the birth of our fallen humanity’s solitary boast is a really good idea.

Today’s feast is older than the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, which was precisely nine months ago.

Holy Church, in celebrating liturgically her holy birth for a long time, ultimately reasoned back to Mary’s holy conception. As St. Thomas Aquinas argued,

“The Church celebrates the feast of our Lady’s Nativity. Now the Church does not celebrate feasts except of those who are holy. Therefore, even in her birth the Blessed Virgin was holy. Therefore, she was sanctified in the womb.” (STh III, q. 27, a. 1)

Lex Orandi Lex CredendiAs we worship, so do we believe.

As we believe, so do we worship.

Change our worship you change belief, and vice versa.

We are our rites.

Here is the entry in the Roman Martyrology for today’s feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary:

Festum Nativitatis beatae Mariae Virginis, ex semine Abrahae, de tribu Iuda ortae, ex progenie regis David, e qua Filius Dei natus est, factus homo de Spiritu Sancto, ut homines vetusta servitute peccati liberaret.

The feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, sprung from the seed of Abraham [and] from the tribe of Judah, from the line of David the king, from which was born the Son of God, made man of the Holy Ghost, that he might free men from the ancient slavery to sin.

 

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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2 Comments

  1. Charles Sercer says:

    Happy Feast Day! I wish that we could celebrate it liturgically today…as I am sure you well know, it would have outranked the Sunday pre-1962 rubrics. Though I wonder if there is a way to do so anyway in the 1962. I was at a FSSP parish where last year the Feast of the Holy Rosary, also a 2nd Class feast, fell on a Sunday but they celebrated it anyway as an External Solemnity instead of the Sunday.

  2. Semper Gumby says:

    “Stop for a moment. Consider what our eternal prospects were before the birth not only of Our Lord, but also before the birth of His Mother, from whom He took our human nature, the Blessed Virgin Mary.”

    A Happy belated Feast Day.

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