Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, by M.C. Holbrook

This Sunday, on September 8th, the Church celebrates Mary’s birthday. Scripture tells us very little about the circumstances surrounding her birth, but still, we can glean a lot about who it is we are celebrating from what Scripture does reveal to us about Our Blessed Mother.

After her visit from the angel Gabriel, Mary travels “in haste” to visit her cousin Elizabeth. Upon Mary’s entering her home, Elizabeth’s very first reaction to seeing her cousin is to proclaim—by “[crying] out in a loud voice” that Mary is “most blessed.”  I grew up with a large extended Hispanic family, and our gatherings were always filled with lots of love, lots of joy, lots of food, and lots of noise. After I got married, I moved away, and my gatherings with family have become much rarer. But when I do come back for a visit, they always greet me with a boisterous and jubilant welcome! The thing is, they don’t greet me with a proclamation. They don’t announce how “blessed” they think I am; usually it’s simply, “So good to see you!” But today, Mary doesn’t get a “so good to see you” from her cousin—even though, clearly, Elizabeth is over the moon at the arrival of her relative. So what makes Elizabeth skip over the “usual” words of welcome that would be expected from anyone else in a similar situation? ….