September 8, 2009
Today is the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary—a feast that I have always found to be a beautiful feast. Although not popularly known among non-Anglo Catholic Episcopalians, I have always had a special place in my heart for this “birthday of Our Lady.”
Of course, I am quite devoted to Our Lady. And one of the more interesting devotions I have discovered in recent years is the devotion of Our Lady as the “Bambina” or “Baby Mary.” As overly pious and cutesy as some people might see it, I see this devotion as very beautiful.
For me devotions such as the “Baby Mary" or feasts like the Nativity of Our Lady are poignant reminders of the far ranging effects of the Incarnation. We, on this side of the Incarnation, take for granted, to some extent, the fact that Mary was the door through which the Incarnation came to be. And even in her infancy, even in that state in which she was innocently unaware of what awaited her, she was still chosen.
When we look at the larger plan—when we look at the larger perspective and see that God’s plan for the Incarnation spread not only through the Hebrew scriptures—but through the lives of those who were directly affected by Incarnation, then we can see an celebrate events like the Conception and Nativity of Our Lady as “gateway events.” They are not days to glorify Mary for her own sake. They are days which, in a sense, are doors opening onto the event of the Incarnation. They are path stones leading toward t he glorious event of God’s Presence among us in flesh like our flesh.
And, like the child Mary, who was born today, unaware of the vital and eternal event that was take place in her life—in her very body—we too are also often blissfully unaware that we too are chosen, we too are called, we too are asked to bear within us the Inarnate God and to be that Incarnation to those around us.
That, to me any way, is the beauty of a feast like Our Lady’s Nativity. So, on this day of Mary’s birth, let us rejoice in her presence in our life, because that presence we celebrate was the presence through which The Presence came among us and dwelt with us in the Person of Jesus.
In Honour of Our Lady's Nativity
Today is the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary—a feast that I have always found to be a beautiful feast. Although not popularly known among non-Anglo Catholic Episcopalians, I have always had a special place in my heart for this “birthday of Our Lady.”
Of course, I am quite devoted to Our Lady. And one of the more interesting devotions I have discovered in recent years is the devotion of Our Lady as the “Bambina” or “Baby Mary.” As overly pious and cutesy as some people might see it, I see this devotion as very beautiful.
For me devotions such as the “Baby Mary" or feasts like the Nativity of Our Lady are poignant reminders of the far ranging effects of the Incarnation. We, on this side of the Incarnation, take for granted, to some extent, the fact that Mary was the door through which the Incarnation came to be. And even in her infancy, even in that state in which she was innocently unaware of what awaited her, she was still chosen.
When we look at the larger plan—when we look at the larger perspective and see that God’s plan for the Incarnation spread not only through the Hebrew scriptures—but through the lives of those who were directly affected by Incarnation, then we can see an celebrate events like the Conception and Nativity of Our Lady as “gateway events.” They are not days to glorify Mary for her own sake. They are days which, in a sense, are doors opening onto the event of the Incarnation. They are path stones leading toward t he glorious event of God’s Presence among us in flesh like our flesh.
And, like the child Mary, who was born today, unaware of the vital and eternal event that was take place in her life—in her very body—we too are also often blissfully unaware that we too are chosen, we too are called, we too are asked to bear within us the Inarnate God and to be that Incarnation to those around us.
That, to me any way, is the beauty of a feast like Our Lady’s Nativity. So, on this day of Mary’s birth, let us rejoice in her presence in our life, because that presence we celebrate was the presence through which The Presence came among us and dwelt with us in the Person of Jesus.
In Honour of Our Lady's Nativity
by St. Anselm of Canterbury
Vouchsafe that I may praise thee, O sacred Virgin; give me strength against thine enemies, and against the enemy of the whole human race. Give me strength humbly to pray to thee. Give me strength to praise thee in prayer with all my powers, through the merits of thy most sacred nativity, which for the entire Christian world was a birth of joy, the hope and solace of its life.
When thou wast born, O most holy Virgin, then was the world made light.
Happy is thy stock, holy thy root, and blessed thy fruit, for thou alone as a virgin, filled with the Holy Spirit, didst merit to conceive thy God, as a virgin to bear Thy God, as a virgin to bring Him forth, and after His birth to remain a virgin.
Have mercy therefore upon me a sinner, and give me aid, O Lady, so that just as thy nativity, glorious from the seed of Abraham, sprung from the tribe of Juda, illustrious from the stock of David, didst announce joy to the entire world, so may it fill me with true joy and cleanse me from every sin.
Pray for me, O Virgin most prudent, that the gladsome joys of thy most helpful nativity may put a cloak over all my sins.
O holy Mother of God, flowering as the lily, pray to thy sweet Son for me, a wretched sinner. Amen.
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