Our souls must give birth...

  On September 8th, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary:  Mary, future vessel, the one who is to bear the Christ child, who will carry him close to her heart, in her very being… Mary, who will walk the journey with him, his whole life long, and who will stand at the foot of the cross, carrying her beloved son, still, carrying his memory and his teachings into the future that is the Church…

  Though today's feast honors Mary's birth, it is, at its most profound level, a celebration of Emmanuel, God with us. God is with Mary, to be sure, but there's more: God is with us.  Mary, who was vessel, is to be our model:  we, too, are to recognize God-with-us, the child Jesus in our womb, so to speak; we, too, are to give birth to that child, Jesus, Emmanuel, Yeshua, God-who-saves.  St. Francis de Sales wrote, Our souls must give birth, not outside themselves but inside themselves, to the sweetest, gentlest and most beautiful child imaginable. It is Jesus whom we must bring to birth and produce in ourselves.

  But what does it mean to give birth to this child?  In a sense, it is to strive to live all that Jesus was, and is, and ever shall be; it is to be grace-filled, full of grace, as Mary was, full of the love of the Son, a vessel for the love of the Father, a window, like Mary, through which God's love shines.

Happy Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary!

And happy birth-day to all that can be

sweet and gentle and beautiful in our lives!

Image source:  Tamara Rigishvili, Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary