ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 8th of September
O glorious Virgin, Mother of God, blessed among all nations, worthy of praise and the greatest of praise, intercede for me with thy beloved Son. O honoured Lady, Mother of the King of Angels and Archangels, assist and deliver me from every difficulty and danger.
O Blossom of the Patriarchs, the Virgins and the Angels, Hope of Glory, Beauty of Virgins, Admiration of the Angels and Archangels, remember me, and forsake me not, I beseech thee, at the terrible hour of my death. O Star of the Sea, Gate of Heaven, Temple of God, Palace of Jesus Christ, Harbour of Safety, Power of all Nations, Pearl of all Sweetness, Hope of the Faithful; O Queen who shelters the guilty, who surpasses in radiance the Virgins and the Angels, thy presence gives joy to all the hosts of Heaven.
Therefore, O Mother of Mercy, I place in the protection of thy holy hands my going out, my coming in, my sleeping, my waking, the sight of my eyes, the touch of my hands, the speech from my lips, the hearing of my ears, so that in everything I may be pleasing to thine own beloved Son. Amen.
THE NATIVITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
The birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary announced joy and the near approach of salvation to the lost world; therefore is this festival celebrated by the church with praise and thanksgiving.
It was a mystery of sanctity, and distinguished by singular privileges. Mary was brought forth into the world, not like other children of Adam, infected with the loathsome contagion of sin, but pure, holy, beautiful, and glorious, adorned with all the most precious graces which became her who was chosen to be the Mother of God. She appeared indeed in the weak state of our mortality; but in the eyes of heaven she already transcended the highest seraph in purity, brightness, and the richest ornaments of grace.
"I AM BLACK, BUT BEAUTIFUL, O YE DAUGHTERS OF JERUSALEM"
I am black, but beautiful, O ye daughters of Jerusalem. The spouse says to her much more emphatically than to other souls sanctified by his choicest graces: As the lily among thorns, so is my beloved among the daughters. Thou art all fair, and there is not a spot in thee. Man was no sooner fallen in paradise through the woman seduced by the infernal spirit, but God promised another woman whose seed should crush that serpent’s head. I will put enmities, said he to the serpent, between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel. This curse is evidently to be understood of the devil who seduced Eve, and with implacable malice sought the destruction of her posterity.
THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE SOLEMN PREDICTION
It is not the real serpent that is here meant: the sense would be too low: and why should the serpent, which was not in fault, be so treated, and the true offender the devil, who had either taken the figure of the crafty serpent, or concealed himself in that reptile, escape all punishment? The Hebrew original expresses the latter part of this prophecy as follows: It (i. e. her seed) shall crush thy head. In the birth of the Virgin Mary was the accomplishment of this solemn prediction begun.
To understand the great present that in her God bestowed on the world, we must consider her transcendent dignity, and the singular privileges by which she was distinguished above all other pure creatures. Her dignity is expressed by the evangelist when he says, That of her was born Jesus, who is called the Christ.
THE BLESSED VIRGIN IS TRULY MOTHER OF GOD
From this Bible text alone is that article of the Catholic faith sufficiently evinced, that Mary is truly Mother of God. It is clear this is not to be understood as if she could be in any sense mother of the Divinity, the very thought whereof would imply contradiction and blasphemy, but by reason that she conceived and brought forth that Blessed Man who subsisting by the second divine person of the adorable Trinity, is consequently the natural Son of God.
Hence we truly say with St Paul, that we are redeemed by the blood of a God; and with the Church, that God was born of the Virgin Mary, suffered and died on the cross: all which he did in that human nature which he had wonderfully taken upon him.
From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints
PRAYER:
Impart to your servants, we pray, O Lord,
the gift of heavenly grace,
that the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin
may bring deeper peace
to those for whom the birth of her Son
was the dawning of salvation.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
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