The Dawn Before the Day: Happy Birthday Blessed Mother!

To ponder the mystery of the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary is to ponder the goodness of God in a whole new way. His divine plan for the salvation of mankind, His mercy on sinners, and His joy in all creation are truths that rise to new heights in the coming of the Virgin. She is a glow of heavenly light thrown on the darkness of humanity; her birth the first dawning of our salvation.

“When the most holy Virgin was born, the whole world was made radiant,” says the Liturgy of the Hours for the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin. “Sun of Justice, the Virgin was born before you as dawn comes before the day… blessed is the branch and blessed the stem which bore the holy fruit.”

The Birthday of the Blessed Virgin, which the church celebrates on September 8, takes on tremendous significance when seen through the lens of God’s eternal plan. It also lends exquisite meaning to the feast day of the Most Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which quickly follows on September 12. Both of these days of celebration draw our attention to the early life of Mary, before Her participation in Jesus’ earthly existence.

Before Mary conceived Christ in her womb, she had conceived Him in her heart, said St. Augustine. Before Our Lady wrapped her first-born in swaddling clothes, she had already embraced the Messiah with her will, her intellect, and her nature. Before she followed His way of passion and stood below His bloody cross, she had freely immolated herself before God for the sake of the coming Messiah. Before she rejoiced in His resurrection, she had dedicated her life to His glory and victory. Before knowing the immediacy of His coming–and before comprehending her own role as His Mother–she had already unreservedly offered herself to God for His divine purposes.

This understanding of her “fullness of grace” prepares us to comprehend Mary’s unqualified “fiat” to God’s angelic messenger when invited to be the Mother of God. God had been preparing the soil of her soul since her creation. she herself, through her goodness and love freely given, had tilled it and made it ready for seed.

How was such a creature formed? By the express will of the Blessed Trinity, to act as an appropriate vessel, an ark, a tabernacle for the coming of the Messiah. “God took more care in the formation of this most pure body than in the creation of the heavens and the entire universe,” wrote Venerable Mary of Agreda (1602-1665) in “The Mystical City of God ,” the saint’s revelations of the ineffable mysteries of the life of Mary.

The Mystical City of God ,” in which Ven. Mary of Agreda records revelations of the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is not to be placed on a par with Holy Scripture, which does not record Mary’s birth. Nor are the faithful obligated to believe in its contents. However, the Catholic Church has a long tradition of reading and contemplating the private revelations of the saints, provided they do not contradict church teaching. Such reading, when accompanied by the Church’s Imprimatur (official declaration that a work is free from error in matters of doctrine and morals) can serve to increase our love and understanding of God.

The early church’s traditions surrounding Mary’s birth were founded in such written accounts as the Protoevangelium of James, an apocryphal gospel dating to about 150 A.D. Throughout the Church’s history, many of the saints, including John Eudes, Joseph Cupertino, and Padre Pio, loved to contemplate the Blessed Mother as a baby. The Italian tradition of “Maria Bambina,” or Baby Mary, marks the feast day with prayers, hymns and petitions, all enhanced by the presence of an elaborately dressed infant statue nestled in a crib. Similar celebrations, which coincide with harvest time, exist all over western and eastern Europe.

Reflecting on Our Blessed Mother as an infant and child leads the faithful where Mary always leads the faithful: to her Son.

When the time for the creation of Mary had come, the Divine Trinity decreed that she would be “exempt from the ordinary laws of mortals…it is fitting that the Divinity should clothe her in very pure matter, never sullied by sin; justice and providence demand that which is most fit, most perfect, and most holy,” writes Mary of Agreda.

Among the Virgin’s many unique attributes would be the inability of her enemy, Satan, to subdue her in any way, no matter how slight. The result would be the closest resemblance possible between Mary, Christ’s terrestrial Mother, and God, Christ’s heavenly Father, giving all of nature and heaven cause to rejoice at her coming. She is, in the words of Poet William Wordsworth, “Our tainted nature’s singular boast.”

Born to holy parents, Sts. Ann and Joachim, who had been much maligned for their inability to have a child, Mary’s conception and birth were miraculous and surrounded by supernatural graces. Her birth is inserted at the very heart of the history of salvation, she who was predestined by God to bear God to a waiting world. From the moment of her conception, Mary was free from the stain of sin by virtue of the redemptive merits of her Son.

The result was a baby in the womb who was fully cognizant of the goodness of God and filled with the loving desire to serve Him. In this pre-born baby resided perfect temperament and faculties resulting in “an infused habit of every virtue in a degree greater than any or all of the saints together,” according to Mary of Agreda.

Mary in the womb began to praise God and all of His creation, and to practice the theological virtues which would mark Her entire life. Further, She shed tears for the sins of mankind, offering Her sorrow in expiation. Her prayers and tears found great favor with God, and so began her eternal role as Mediatrix.

“During the time this Holy Child passed in Her mother’s womb, her visions (of God) were continual…and She  (sic) was raised to sublime…contemplation of the Most Blessed Trinity,” writes Mary of Agreda. “She occupied Herself (sic) in heroic acts of adoration and love of God, continual prayers in favor of mankind, and holy communications with the angels.”

Before her birth Mary fervently begged God to never allow her to fail in her life of service to Him. Already forces were at work to attack her arrival, as St. Ann suffered temptations, doubts, and injuries from others. God’s grace and the protection of the angels upheld the mother and child through all. Before Mary’s conception, God had made known to St. Ann that she would give birth to the Mother of the Savior. With this awesome awareness, St. Ann approached her role in humility and deep prayerfulness with words that every mother ought to echo: “Creator of all beings, I humbly offer Thee the fruit of my womb, which I have received from Thy infinite goodness. I thank Thee from the bottom of my heart. Do with the daughter and the mother according to Thy most holy will.”

The moment of Mary’s birth caused joy in heaven. The angels venerated her as their Queen in the arms of her mother, and they rendered themselves visible to her eyes. The Archangel Gabriel was sent to announce her birth to the souls in limbo who faithfully awaited the Messiah. The newborn herself was transported, body and soul, to heaven where God the Father bestowed on her the name of Mary, and promised that those who would invoke it with devout affection would receive abundant graces and be protected even against the terrible forces of hell. The name was announced to St. Ann by angelic spirits heralding a luminous banner.

At her conception, angels were assigned by God to protect Mary. At her birth, angels particularly chosen for their affection and devotion to the Incarnate Word joined her, continually and faithfully watching over her through Her life.

For a brief time Sts. Ann and Joachim had the blessed privilege of caring for and loving little Mary, watching her grow in beauty and holiness. As the precursor to the Holy Family of Nazareth, it was a household led by piety and grace, a home in which Mary experienced the familial intimacy she would later share with the Christ Child and St. Joseph. Having been consecrated to the temple for the glory of God, Mary left her aging parents very early and took up residence among the virgins who dedicated their lives to praising and serving God in the temple precincts. Mary of Agreda places the occurrence at a year and a half of age; other traditions say at approximately three years old.

It was in the temple that little Mary was to continue her journey of perfect submission to the will of God. It was a childhood of charity, of grace, of suffering, and of great joy. It was the training ground for what would become her extraordinary life, a life sealed on that day when an angel from heaven would ask her cooperation in a new and unimagined way. The generosity of her faith-filled response is the capstone of her early life of preparation and anticipation.

As we celebrate the Nativity of Mary, let us find the time to contemplate her predestination, her Immaculate Conception, her infancy and childhood.

“Today the barren Anna claps her hands for joy, the earth radiates with light, kings sing their happiness, priests enjoy every blessing, the entire universe rejoices, for she who is queen and the Father’s immaculate bride buds forth from the stem of Jesse.” (adapted from Byzantine Daily Worship).

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