September 8: Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Rejoice, for today the morning star shines on the horizon! All you who are weary from your journey through this valley of tears, give thanks to the Lord, for your salvation is nigh. Whatever your discouragement and trials, pick yourselves up, for today that Morning Star rising on the horizon assures us that our trials are nearing the end and victory is at hand! She who will bear the Son of God, and bring our Savior to the world sees the light of day! She is in the arms of her mother Anne who presents this child who will one day reign in Heaven as its queen! Her father, St. Joachim bids you come closer and rejoice at the birth of the Queen.

The Ark of the Covenant is among us: the Virgin who will one day bear the child-God will traverse the countryside to bring Him first to Elizabeth and her son John the Baptist. At His birth, she will present Him to the lowly shepherd and the learned Wise Men. It is she who will commission Him on His saving mission when He started His public life at the Marriage Feast at Cana. It is she who will follow Him, mystically joining with Him entirely and without reservation in His passion and death on the Cross. At Calvary, she will offer Him to the Eternal Father, that He may take pity on us fallen men.

Under the Cross, she will accept John as her son, becoming thereby the mother of all humanity, your mother ... my mother ... and she will love the least of us with an ocean of love. She will gather the Apostles around her and prepare them as they watch and wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. She will come to earth to lovingly remind us when we stray from her Son's true Faith, and she will lead Christ's faithful to victory against the Church's mortal enemy, and crush the serpent's head.

Do you suffer from physical or mental ailments? Are you mired in sin? Come to Mary! Are you afflicted with sorrow over the loss of a loved one? Heartbroken over a child straying from the narrow path? Suffering financial difficulty or unemployment? Then, come to Mary, she awaits your company! She is the health of the sick, the refuge of sinners and the comforter of the afflicted. She is the help of Christians. There is no force that can align against us: no worldly power, no force of nature, no force from hell that can defeat us, because our mother Mary is at our side!

Let us come to our mother, our queen today. Let us lay fragrant roses at her feet: especially the fragrant flowers of our prayers, sacrifice and acts of virtue in her honor. Let us ask this most sweet, loving mother to lead us to her beloved Jesus that we may one day be happy with them, in the presence of the most Holy Trinity and the company of the saints in heaven. Though we are poor, let us wish our sweet mother a "Happy Birthday" bringing her our smiles, our tears, our joys and our sorrows, our weakness and our strengths as our gifts.

Oh Mary, my mother and my queen, how often have I caused you sorrow by offending your Son. You have shown yourself a mother. May I show myself a son to you today. May I bring a smile to your lips and joy to your Immaculate Heart by honoring you and your Son by my contrition, my charity toward all and a virtuous life! I pledge to you now: today, I will no longer resist, but walk along the road to Paradise with you. Do not let me fall, but if I do through my inconstancy and weakness, please see to it that I pick myself up again, take up my cross and follow your Son. Grant me strength, fortitude and zeal for the battle, but most of all a tender love for you.

It is a narrow road, dear mother I know. Let me no longer fear it, but delight to follow it as I should have done all along, because I believe your Son when He tells us His yoke is sweet and His burden light. I know now it is you who help make this burden sweet and light because you are the mother of Consolation. You wipe away the tears from my eyes and cheer me, for you are the cause of my joy, O Virgin most merciful! O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.