When I was younger, my older brother served in the Coast Guard for close to ten years. One year when he was working on the ships protecting our waters, my family and I took a trip to the Carolinas and visited him on base. On one of his free days my brother took us around the town of Charleston and in one of the Cathedrals downtown stood the most beautiful statue of Mary that I have ever seen. At first, I didn’t realize it was Mary because she was depicted as a young girl and I had never seen a picture of Mary as a child before. One of the Cathedral workers passed behind me, stopped, and explained how the statue was hand carved from an artist in Italy and he was the only artist that had ever depicted Mary as a young girl, and what an absolutely stunning depiction it was. I remember lying in bed that night thinking about the day, and my mind went back to that statue of Mary. We don’t often think of Mary as a young girl. We think of her as the Queen of Heaven, or the mother of Jesus. As the life of Christ began with Mary, so too the life of the Christian begins with Mary. Her “yes” to God changed the entire world. As the years went on and I gained more knowledge about my faith, and deepening my relationship with God, I always go back to Mary honoring her as the Queen of Heaven and the mother of us all. I look to Mary for guidance on how to be a future wife and mother, and how to unconditionally not only love and devout my life to her Son, but to the world.
The feast of the Nativity of Mary, the Mother of God, which we celebrate today is nine months after she was conceived by her parents. This feast day gives us the opportunity to reflect on the childhood of Mary and the new beginning that God brought in her and with her. I often wonder if Mary was like any other little girl. Did she like having pigtails in her hair, and running around with her baby dolls? Did she try to keep up with the boys in her town climbing trees, and searching for worms? Mary lived a largely hidden life, however we do know that Mary was holy from the start which makes her one of three people next to Christ himself and St. John the Baptist that has feast days commemorating their births. Mary was sanctified by God in the womb. Mary’s birth itself gave birth to a new world. No Mary, no Christ. Her birth was the start of the future we all now inhabit. Part of Jesus’s DNA is Mary herself, therefore we can think of Mary as part of God because she is in the human part of Christ who is 100% divine and 100% human. So why wouldn’t we honor her on her Birthday!
So to the young girl who risked everything and changed the entire world! We honor you today, we love you deeply, and we say Happy Happy Birthday!
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