Today’s feast, the Nativity of Mary, is older than the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, which was precisely nine months ago.
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.
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.
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)
As 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.
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In the East, today’s feast is one of the 12 “great feasts” – feasts of the highest rank. I wonder why this feast is of a lower rank in the West… lower, even, than that of the nativity of St John.