9781644135945

The Time After Pentecost
thy ear; for the King hath greatly desired thy beauty” (Gradual). “He that humbleth himself,
shall be exalted” (Lk 18:14).
“Mary hath chosen the best part.” Mary is the community of the faithful; she chooses
the best part in Holy Communion, for she chooses Christ and in Him the life of grace. Holy
Communion is a guarantee and foretaste of the eternal blessing which Mary today enjoys.
Prayer
Almighty and everlasting God, who hast taken up the immaculate Virgin Mary, the mother
of Thy Son, with body and soul into heavenly glory: grant, we beseech Thee, that intent on
higher things we may always deserve to be partakers of her glory. Through the same Christ
our Lord. Amen.
September 8, The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Today we celebrate the birth of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. “Out of Thee hath risen
He who sitteth on the throne, alleluia” (Benedictus antiphon). This is a day of joy and happiness.
The morning star appears in the person of Mary and announces the approach of Christ
the Savior. “Out of thee the Sun of Justice hath risen, Christ our God, who taking away the
curse, hath bestowed blessing, and confounding death, hath given us eternal life” (Magnificat
antiphon). We possess Him through Mary.
“Hail, holy mother, giving birth to thy child thou didst bring forth the King who ruleth heaven and
earth forever and ever” (Introit). The Church on earth, together with the Church in heaven and
the choirs of angels and saints, greets her. They see in her not a helpless, feeble child reposing in
the arms of St. Anne, but the woman selected by God to bring the Savior into the world. “Happy
art thou, O holy Virgin Mary, and most worthy of praise, for out of thee the Sun of Justice hath
risen, Christ our God” (Alleluia). She was born of a human father and mother, like every other
human being. She is of the house of David, a house once highly honored, but later humbled,
bereft of power, forgotten and despised. A member of this house of David is elected by God to
“bear the Creator of all things; Him who made thee, thou didst bring forth” (Offertory). “He
whom the whole world cannot contain, enclosed Himself in thy womb” (Gradual). “But the
foolish things of the world hath God chosen, that He may confound the wise; and the weak things
of the world hath God chosen, that He may confound the strong” (1 Cor 1:27). With wonder
the Church contemplates the mystery of the birth of the Mother of God. “Hail, holy mother,
giving birth to thy child thou didst bring forth the King who ruleth heaven and earth.” “Blessed
is the womb of the Virgin Mary, which bore the Son of the eternal Father” (Communion).
“The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His ways, before He made anything from the
beginning. I was set up from eternity and of old, before the earth was made. The depths were
not as yet, and I was already conceived. . . . When He prepared the heavens, I was there; when
with a certain law and compass He enclosed the depths, . . . I was with Him, forming all things,
and was delighted every day, playing before Him at all times, playing in the world; and my
delight is to be with the children of men” (Epistle). This passage describes the birth of Mary as
she was conceived in the mind of God even before the creation of the world. Mary is pictured
as the seat and bearer of the eternal Wisdom of God. Wisdom is born of God, a child of God,
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