The Birthday of Mary
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Today, nine months after the Immaculate Conception of Mary on December 8, we celebrate her birthday on September 8.
Today is the birthday of Mary our spiritual mother…Pause
God does not need to use many words to make big things happen: God said, “Let there be light” and the entire universe sprang into existence. God said, “This is my body.” And bread was transformed into God in the Eucharist at the Last Supper. From the Cross God said, “Behold, your mother.” And from that moment Mary became our spiritual mother.
I have an exact replica of the Miraculous Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe in my home, it is actually in my bedroom. I have this wonderful soft blue light that illumines her face faintly. When I awake in the night, there she is, watching over me.
I was thinking of her words to Juan Diego today on her birthday because they are words she speaks to each one of us.
She said:
“Hear and let it penetrate into your heart, my dear little son; let nothing disturb you. Am I not here who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not your fountain of life? Are you not in the folds of my mantle? In the crossing of my arms? Is there anything else that you need?
“Am I not here who am your Mother…Is there anything else that you need.”
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Place yourself under Mary’s Mantle of Protection
Three relics of the Blessed Virgin Mary were preserved in Constantinople – her Mantle or robe, her veil and part of her belt.
By 638 A.D. Islam had become master of the middle east and in the year 718, the Muslim forces had surrounded the Byzantine Catholic Capital and laid siege to the city, intent on destroying Christianity. There was no human way out of the dire situation and it looked hopeless. The Patriarch or head Bishop of the City, remembered how in the Old Testament, the Ark of the Covenant gave the Israelites protection and victory in battle. When the Israelites were trying to enter the Promised Land they marched around the outside of the walls of Jericho seven times carrying in the Ark of the Covenant. The walls fell down and the Israelites gained the victory and the Promised Land.
Mary is the new Ark of the Covenant, and her mantle offered Constantinople the same kind of protection. On August 15, 718, The Patriarch of Constantinople and the people marched around the inside of the city walls carrying the Mantle of Mary, the New Ark of the Covenant, while they chanted the hymn Akathist hymn to Mary. With no explanation, the Muslim invaders fled and were destroyed by natural disasters in their retreat.
This victory of Mary prevented the Muslim forces from advancing in the East for more than 700 years. And her protection is celebrated each year on the first day of October. It’s called the Feast of Pokrov – The Protection of the Mother of God.
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One of the best ways to place your loved ones under Mary’s Mantle of Protection is to pray the Rosary for them.
There is a fantastic true account in a book entitled In the Shadow of His Wings, of a German Franciscan seminarian who was conscripted into Hitler's dreaded SS at the onset of World War II. At one point during the war, after his squad, exhausted from marching, laid down to sleep. Immediately he heard a voice which urged him to get up and dig a fox-hole, which he initially ignored. But the voice would become more urgent “Get up and dig.” Finally, he gave in to the voice, and began to dig a fox hole. As soon as he finished, artillery began to fall all around them and every soldier in the squad was killed but him. He survived the war, after which he went to see a nun who taught him in grade school. It was then that she revealed that she prayed the Rosary every night for him during the War. Then she gave him the exact date when his life had been spared for God made it known to her that as she prayed the Rosary for him, it was the Mother of God who had protected him by telling him to get up and dig.
Make the commitment to pray the Rosary for your family and friends. You may only know in the next life just how much good you did for them.
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Today, we are still under the protection of Mary. So, we must entrust everything to her that seems impossible, everything that appears to have no human solution, all that seems hopeless and especially everything this is beyond our control.
We must remember especially that our children are first the children of God the Father and Mary our Mother.
We try to protect and influence our kids the best we can when they are little. But there is very little we can do once they are grown.
However, we can still do the most powerful thing – we can continuously place them under Mary’s Mantle of Protection.
The last thing I do before I go to sleep each night is to entrust myself, my wife, my marriage and my kids, and grandkids, to Mary, placing them under her Mantle of Protection!
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We should give Mary a gift on her birthday. But what can we give her? What does she desire? Our hearts. She said: Give me your hearts and I will place Jesus in you and make you my apostles. Begin by gathering with one person or as a family or small group to pray. Begin small if necessary, with one Our Father or one decade of the Rosary. But don’t be afraid to go further. Jesus and Mary in countless approved apparitions have begged us to pray the Rosary as families and friends.
Then talk. Ask one another what each was thinking about during the Rosary. And listen to each other.