Today is the nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. I have no idea how the date for this was chosen, but there is a certain logic to it when we look at the calendar and realize that her Immaculate Conception is celebrated on Dec 8, exactly 9 months earlier. The Church has celebrated this feast since at least the 6 ^th century. St. Andrew of Crete refers to Mary's birth as the "joyful prelude" to the coming of Jesus into the world. "The Virgin is born," he says, "tended and formed and prepared for her role as Mother of God, who is the universal King of the ages."

St. Augustine also connects Mary's birth with Jesus' saving work. He says, "She is the flower of the field from whom bloomed the precious lily of the valley. Through her birth the nature inherited from our first parents is changed." The opening prayer at Mass speaks of the birth of Mary's Son as the dawn of our salvation and asks for an increase of peace.

Mary's parents are Joachim and Anne, who had been infertile but, after she weeps and prays for a child, an angel of the Lord appeared and said to her, "Anna, Anna, the Lord has heard your prayer, and you shall conceive, and shall bring forth; and your seed shall be spoken of in all the world." Anne was a devout woman and a good mother. In fact, she would not let Mary even touch the ground until after she had been taken to the temple to be purified, for Mary belonged to God, not to the earth.

In the birth of Mary, we are led halfway between the law and grace, the old is passing away and the new is coming. Her birth stands before us as a mystery, she is a sign of what we will all become. We are each of us born here on this earth as a miracle, but our nature has taken on death. Through Mary and her glorious Assumption, we come to see that there is a second birth, a heavenly birth, made possible by Jesus Our Savior. There is a natural order but there is a more important order of grace that completes the natural. This means that when we celebrate the birth of Mary, we celebrate the birth of our own, spiritual mother.

In her, we see how all things are raised to a higher dignity, each creature appointed by the divine for a special purpose. I find it interesting to note how, as our culture continues to weaken and disintegrate, it has begun attacking the idea of birth and motherhood. Contraception keeps our birth rate well below where it ought to be and pregnancy is often looked at as an inconvenience or a disease to be avoided. Abortion takes more babies than the holocaust ever did, women are told that becoming mothers is insignificant, it holds them back from more important things that men get to do. What these great, noble tasks that men are up to I do not know. As far as I can tell, all we do is mess around at a job we may or may not like and watch sports. To me it seems very obvious that the role of women in childbearing and mothering is far, far more important than anything I can ever accomplish. It is an affront to women to convince them that the only way to have a successful life is to act more like a man. Women have a dignity that the Church embraces and promotes, and this is exemplified most clearly in Mary, the joy of Anne at her birth, and the way in which God uses these humble women and their unique gifts to bring about the salvation of the whole world.

In every human birth there is a new hope, a precious new little life that is dearly loved and cherished. In our openness to life, we follow the example of Mary, and more importantly, we follow the example of God the Father, who loves us so much that he simply was not content to be anything other than a parent, Our Father, and to give us Mary and the Church, Our Mother.