Feasts of Our Lady
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How Our Lady Celebrated Her Birth Date - September 8
On this feast day of September 8, the feast of the Nativity of Our Lady, let us look at how Our Lady celebrated the date of her birth.
Ven. Mary of Agreda recounts the following:
“After Our Lord ascended to Heaven and Our Lady remained alone on earth, she began to gradually organize her life. As you know, she lived in the city of Ephesus for a long time with St. John the Evangelist, whom Our Lord gave to her as a son moments before His death, while giving her to him as his Mother. And the Gospel says that from that moment on, St. John the Evangelist accepted her as his Mother and she took him as her son.”
After that, St. John showed her all the attention, care, and consideration that Our Lord had given her. That is to say, he was extremely devoted and good to Our Lady, very attentive, respectful and reverential.
So they lived together, and she began to organize daily ordinary life. She no longer participated in Our Lord's earthly life, which had gloriously concluded with His Ascension into Heaven, but she continued to participate in the remembrance and recollection of all Our Lord's past life on earth. She was a burning torch of longing, adoration, thanksgiving, reparation and continual petition to Our Lord Jesus Christ.
As she organized her life, she began to recall the dates of the main events in her life and that of her Divine Son. She was conceived without original sin and had a perfect memory, and by her nature itself, she was extremely intelligent and greatly assisted by grace.
She did not calculate the major events of her life as everyone else does. For example a man might recall,: "I enrolled in college on this date, I got a motorcycle a year later..." The true dates in a man's life are the dates on which he served Our Lady in a more distinguished way through the apostolate, suffering or prayer. Or the dates on which Our Lady gave Him special graces. These are the true dates to recall in a man's life. The rest is idle talk.
She noted various important dates, and when each one arrived, she celebrated that day with special ceremonies in her little room, because the Church was not yet organized with sacred buildings or public places. The Church was still extraordinarily new. So, in her small room, she celebrated that date in her own way.
It is a beautiful idea for us to explore today how Our Lady celebrated the date of her own birth. We will thus see what Our Lady's life was like, how she celebrated its beginning, and how Our Lord descended to join and assist her in the celebration. Thus we can celebrate her birth, moved by the way in which she did so, which is to celebrate in intimate union with her. Then, I will read the excerpt from Ven. Mary of Agreda from The Mystical City of God (vol. 4, "The Coronation") and comment on it. (1)
Mary of Agreda’s account
“The feast of her Nativity dhe celebrated on the 8th of September, the day on which she was born. She began the evening before with the same prostrations and canticles as she made for the feast of her Immaculate Conception.”
All of this has a purpose. The day of the Immaculate Conception is the day she was conceived without original sin in the most pure womb of St. Anne, that is, when she came into being. Her birth is the day she began to be for the world. Conception and birth are correlated facts. Birth is the fruit, the culmination of a physiological process that begins with conception.
In her case, it was also a spiritual process because she was conceived without original sin, She had the use of reason from the first moment of her being. Even inside the womb of St. Anne, her mother, she already reasoned, she already had thoughts that were most elevated and sublime by means of the graces God gave her and revelation He made to her, etc.
So, when she was born, she already came with a whole fully developed spiritual life; a whole process of sanctification had already been accomplished. Thus did she come into the earth as a sun. It was for this reason that she repeated on the date of her birth the ceremonies she made on the feast of the Immaculate Conception. You see how everything is rational and logical, demonstrating the supreme wisdom of Our Lady.
What lesson does this teach us? It is to be reasonable, logical and consistent in everything, to do everything as Our Lady commands, as Our Lady requests, and do all with tranquility, serenity and a complete surrender of self.
Now, I invite you to look for a moment at this image of Our Lady of Fatima and imagine Our Lady in her small room praying, sometimes standing, sometimes kneeling, and occasionally singing. Can you imagine if there was ever a song on earth as beautiful, majestic, sweet and suave as the canticle of Our Lady, especially one addressed to God? Could a melody like it exist on earth? Absolutely not.
Then let us imagine, St. John the Evangelist is working outside her closed door; suddenly he hears Our Lady singing the Magnificat. He pauses, listens, and remains quiet, not knowing what to say; then continues his work. But imagine his state of soul? What state would we be in if this Image suddenly sang the Magnificat? We would be without words, stammering until early morning. Well then, imagine the effect of this on St. John, who had a much greater devotion than ours...
Now let us consider this small house, with its rooms just a short distance from the street. As the pagans passed by it on the street, one of them heard that chanting and stopped to listen, his soul profoundly touched.
The next day, he met St. John on the street and said: "I heard your Mother singing yesterday and could not sleep last night because of my joy. Could you do me the great favor to take me to her house one day to hear her sing?"
St. John, a bit unsure, replied: "For a few moments, yes." So, the man went and heard Our Lady's voice in song, and left inebriated with joy. Days later, he was baptized. It was the simple modulation of Our Lady's voice that converted this soul more profoundly than all the sermons in the world!
This is because everything that touches Our Lady is absolutely exceptional and unique. This is how things that concern her should be seen and imagined.
Our Lady gives thanks for her birth
“She gave thanks to God for having been born to life into the light of this world, and for the favor of having been raised to Heaven at the hour of her birth to look upon the Divinity intuitively, as I have narrated in the first part of this History”
Here you see how admirable the birth of Our Lady was. She is so holy and so beloved of all creatures that, soon after she opened her eyes to the earth, she saw God. This was her entrance into life. What is the pinnacle of life for the vast majority of people was the beginning of hers. You see how she is so much above everything and everyone, beyond comparison to anyone, to absolutely no one.
Maria de Agreda writes: “She resolved anew to spend her whole life in fulfilling the pleasure of the Lord, acknowledging that for this purpose alone life was given to her.”
That is, when she saw God, what she asked was to spend her entire life pleasing and serving Him. And she renewed this desire on each birthday.
One can see that she, who was confirmed in grace and conceived without original sin, knew that she would be the Mother of God and that she would carry in her womb Our Lord Jesus Christ for nine months.
She knew that after the Resurrection, the Real Presence would remain always present in her bosom; she would receive Communion and the Sacred Species would remain incorrupt until the Communion of the following day. She would be, therefore, a tabernacle – but with such a profound notion of the humility of the human condition that she asked God to spend her entire life serving and pleasing Him. With this she would be satisfied.
“Although she realized that in the first beginning and entrance into her life she had surpassed in merits the highest Saints and Seraphims, toward the end of her life she resolve to begin to labor anew as if she was just beginning the practice of virtue. And again she asked the Lord to assist her, to govern all her actions, and to lead her to the highest end proposed for His glory.”
You see the prayer she made. She said: “My God, my Son, my Lord, I know that from the first moment of my life, Thou didst give me more graces than even the Seraphims. But may this birthday of mine be like a new birth. And may I, with renewed strength and an even greater love, serve Thee even more during this year of life that Thou art giving me because I want to grow continually in love for Thee. There is no limit, no point at which I would stop.”
You see how sublime it is! This is how we should pray.
The first summit of the Feast
She continues: “As for the rest concerning this feast, although she was not raised to Heaven as on the day of her Immaculate Conception, yet her Divine Son descended from Heaven to be with her.”
That is, probably when her prayer became especially intense, Our Lord would descend. This is so natural, so explicable, so reasonable. What son does not visit his mother on her birthday? It was her birthday; He was her Son.
Thus, in that tiny cubicle of a small house in a pagan city, Our Lord Jesus Christ descended from Heaven and entered. You can imagine her joy, their mutual affection as they met face to face! It was the height of the feast that, nonetheless was beginning of her life. A beginning that was also a height, because everything she made before was preparation for His visit.
You see how rational everything is: The day before she prepared; on the day she said that sublime prayer. Then, at its summit, Our Lord came to visit her.
It continues: “Our Lord descended with many choirs of Angels, with the Patriarchs and Prophets and with St. Joachim, St. Anne and St. Joseph, her most chaste spouse.”
Now imagine several hierarchies of Angels with all their splendor filling her room, and singing in praise of her in union with the praises of Our Lord Jesus Christ. What a splendid harmony that would be!
Then, the entire Old Testament was present before her: the Patriarchs, the Prophets, all the most distinguished righteous persons in the Old Law, and especially her parents and her spouse. You can imagine the joy of St. Anne, St. Joachim and St. Joseph paying homage to her, and her joy to see them again and great satisfaction to be with each of them.
But, above all, there was the presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the unfathomable infinite source of all the joy a man can have, the absolute source of absolute joy. There He was, joining in those praises and speaking with her.
Imagine, for example, were He to address her with some of the invocations from the Litany of Loreto: Mater purissima, Mater inviolata, Mater amabilis, Mater admirabilis… All these things that are so little coming from our lips, how sonorous they would be coming from His! And what repercussions they would have in her soul! How overwhelmed with joy and utterly united with her Son she would be upon hearing this.
Reading about the celebration of her birthday, we have an idea of her greatness, holiness and perfection.
She adores God & thanks Him
“This purest of creatures, in the presence of that celestial company, adored the Lord with wonderful reverence and worship, and again gave Him thanks for having brought her into the world and for the benefits she had received for it.”
It is the normal reaction of every person who has a good spiritual life and receives a eulogy. He does not delight in this praise like a glutton savoring a glass of delicious liquor.
Rather, it is the opposite: It is to immediately give glory to God. For, since every good thing we have comes from God, the upright and faithful person who receives praise immediately says: "Magnificat anima mea Dominum!" That is, "my soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior." This is how Our Lady gave thanks to God.
“Then, the Angels did the same and sang Nativitas tua Dei Genetrix Virgo… which means: Thy birth, O virgin Mother of God, announced a great joy to the entire universe, for of thee was born the Sun of Justice, Christ our God.
“The Patriarchs and Prophets also sang their canticles of glory and thanksgiving. Adam and Eve, present in the room, thanked her, because from her had come the reparation for their sin. And the parents and spouse of the Queen gave praise because God had given them such a daughter and spouse.
“Then the Lord Himself raised the divine Mother from the ground upon which she lay prostrate and placed her at His right hand, and there new mysteries of the Divinity were manifested to her. This vision, though not intuitive but abstractive, gave her a still deeper insight and participation in the Divinity."
The hour for the gift
It is the hour for the gift. See how well ordered everything is. First there is the preparation, then the feast begins with the prayers, afterwards come the first summit when Our Lord descends and Our Lady gives thanks in ecstasy of soul and with all humility.
Then comes the second summit: Our Lord glorifies her. He seats her beside Himself, she who was prostrate on the ground – as said in the Magnificat, "Deposuit potentes de sede et exaltavit humiles – He hath put down the mighty from their seat and hath exalted the humble. He places her beside Him and gives her a birthday gift.
One might say: “But the gift has already been given, she saw Our Lord Jesus Christ. What gift could be given after that?
For a soul who loves God, the true gift is to know something new about God, and to love something new in God; it is the only true gift. Because the very essence of the gift is to bring something new, not something old.
Imagine, for example, a boy who has a beautiful object hanging on the wall in his home, something the he has seen his whole life. On his birthday, his parents tell him: "Look, this object is yours now."
How different if they bring something new to give him; then there is the feeling of a gift, of something new.
And for Our Lady, only one thing had value, and that was the gift of knowing something new about God!
So, Our Lord Jesus Christ, seated her beside Him, revealed something new about God Our Lord, and therefore about Himself, because He is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. You can imagine the new level of holiness she reached. It seems incredible since we know that she was progressing in sanctity throughout her life. But now, a new level of holiness! How great was her joy and gratitude. How rich she felt herself to be with this spiritual gift! Something truly incomparable, as the celebration reached its summit.
First, the Son comes to visit His Mother; second, the Son seats His Mother at His side. Third, as if adorning her with a beautiful diamond necklace or stupendous diadem, He tells her: “Here, My Mother, are new truths about the Divine Essence.” Ecstatic with joy, she listens…
Before reading about a scene like this, we have no idea how elevated it is. In the triviality of everyday life, we cannot comprehend something so sublime. But reading this helps us to gain at least a little of that love for sublime and elevated things that should characterize the true slave of Our Lady. To like what is elevated and sublime, and to not compromise with what is vulgar and base.
The Feast concludes with a Mass said by St. John
“With these ineffable favors, she was transformed anew in her Most Holy Son, inflamed and spiritualized to labor for the Church, as if she were being reborn again.”
Our Lady was already elderly, but she reentered her springtime as if she had been born again. And she was set on fire, more or less like two flames merging into one another, she with Our Lord Jesus Christ.
“And on these occasions, the Evangelist St. John merited some participation in the feast, for he heard some of the music of the Angels and was privileged to offer Mass while the Lord and the Angels were present in the oratory, and gave Holy Communion to the great Queen while Jesus her Son, whom she was receiving sacramentally, was Himself at her side “
We see, from outside, how the great feast was underway. And the virgin Apostle, the Apostle whom Our Lord loved most, the Apostle who all his life mourned his betrayal of Our Lord during His prayer in the Garden of Olives – we can imagine this Apostle kneeling, listening, at times beating his chest and asking for forgiveness, and at other times lost in the beauty he could hear from outside the door. But he was outside, he dared not enter; it was so elevated and high that it was impossible for any earthly creature to see it.
Just a few notes of the music was enough to fill his soul, just as this simple narration somehow fills our souls. It gives us a small idea of the plenitude of Our Lady's soul then, at that instant.
Here we see, then, the third summit: the Mass, where the Holy Sacrifice of Calvary was repeated in an unbloody way.
We also realize the great honor of St. John to celebrate the Holy Mass there, in the presence of Our Lady, illuminated like a Seraphim that descended from Heaven… Celebrating a Mass is a greater honor! To say the words by which the Transubstantiation takes place is a greater honor than everything else. With this you understand what it is to celebrate a Mass.
Our Lady attended this Mass alongside her Divine Son, and received Communion from St. John. You see how beautiful this is! God is everywhere, He was at the same time beside her and within her on that occasion.
Ven. Maria de Agreda concludes:
“All these mysteries were a spectacle of new joy for the Saints, who also served as witnesses to this Communion, more worthy than was ever seen since Christ lived or ever shall be seen upon earth. Upon receiving Holy Communion her Divine Son remained with the Great Lady in sacramental form, while in his glorious and natural form He ascended to Heaven. O hidden marvels of the Divine Omnipotence!”
There the feast ends. Our Lord leaves, but He remains within her in the Eucharistic state. And she continues her daily life.
The feast ended, the marvelous scene closed, the celebration of the Nativity of Our Lady came to its end. But not a real ending. For she remained the entire day with Him inside her Heart, until the following day, and then the next day, and the next... until the final moment of her death.
The Saint of the Day features highlights from the lives of saints based on comments made by the late Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira. Following the example of St. John Bosco who used to make similar talks for the boys of his College, each evening it was Prof. Plinio’s custom to make a short commentary on the lives of the next day’s saint in a meeting for youth in order to encourage them in the practice of virtue and love for the Catholic Church. TIA thought that its readers could profit from these valuable commentaries.
The texts of both the biographical data and the comments come from personal notes taken by Atila S. Guimarães from 1964 to 1995. Given the fact that the source is a personal notebook, it is possible that at times the biographic notes transcribed here will not rigorously follow the original text read by Prof. Plinio. The commentaries have also been adapted and translated for TIA’s site.
‘Behold thy Mother’
“After Our Lord ascended to Heaven and Our Lady remained alone on earth, she began to gradually organize her life. As you know, she lived in the city of Ephesus for a long time with St. John the Evangelist, whom Our Lord gave to her as a son moments before His death, while giving her to him as his Mother. And the Gospel says that from that moment on, St. John the Evangelist accepted her as his Mother and she took him as her son.”
After that, St. John showed her all the attention, care, and consideration that Our Lord had given her. That is to say, he was extremely devoted and good to Our Lady, very attentive, respectful and reverential.
So they lived together, and she began to organize daily ordinary life. She no longer participated in Our Lord's earthly life, which had gloriously concluded with His Ascension into Heaven, but she continued to participate in the remembrance and recollection of all Our Lord's past life on earth. She was a burning torch of longing, adoration, thanksgiving, reparation and continual petition to Our Lord Jesus Christ.
As she organized her life, she began to recall the dates of the main events in her life and that of her Divine Son. She was conceived without original sin and had a perfect memory, and by her nature itself, she was extremely intelligent and greatly assisted by grace.
Our Lady’s small house in Ephesus
She noted various important dates, and when each one arrived, she celebrated that day with special ceremonies in her little room, because the Church was not yet organized with sacred buildings or public places. The Church was still extraordinarily new. So, in her small room, she celebrated that date in her own way.
It is a beautiful idea for us to explore today how Our Lady celebrated the date of her own birth. We will thus see what Our Lady's life was like, how she celebrated its beginning, and how Our Lord descended to join and assist her in the celebration. Thus we can celebrate her birth, moved by the way in which she did so, which is to celebrate in intimate union with her. Then, I will read the excerpt from Ven. Mary of Agreda from The Mystical City of God (vol. 4, "The Coronation") and comment on it. (1)
Mary of Agreda’s account
“The feast of her Nativity dhe celebrated on the 8th of September, the day on which she was born. She began the evening before with the same prostrations and canticles as she made for the feast of her Immaculate Conception.”
Our Lady’s birth: a brilliant sun entered the world
In her case, it was also a spiritual process because she was conceived without original sin, She had the use of reason from the first moment of her being. Even inside the womb of St. Anne, her mother, she already reasoned, she already had thoughts that were most elevated and sublime by means of the graces God gave her and revelation He made to her, etc.
So, when she was born, she already came with a whole fully developed spiritual life; a whole process of sanctification had already been accomplished. Thus did she come into the earth as a sun. It was for this reason that she repeated on the date of her birth the ceremonies she made on the feast of the Immaculate Conception. You see how everything is rational and logical, demonstrating the supreme wisdom of Our Lady.
What lesson does this teach us? It is to be reasonable, logical and consistent in everything, to do everything as Our Lady commands, as Our Lady requests, and do all with tranquility, serenity and a complete surrender of self.
Now, I invite you to look for a moment at this image of Our Lady of Fatima and imagine Our Lady in her small room praying, sometimes standing, sometimes kneeling, and occasionally singing. Can you imagine if there was ever a song on earth as beautiful, majestic, sweet and suave as the canticle of Our Lady, especially one addressed to God? Could a melody like it exist on earth? Absolutely not.
Our Lady of Fatima
Now let us consider this small house, with its rooms just a short distance from the street. As the pagans passed by it on the street, one of them heard that chanting and stopped to listen, his soul profoundly touched.
The next day, he met St. John on the street and said: "I heard your Mother singing yesterday and could not sleep last night because of my joy. Could you do me the great favor to take me to her house one day to hear her sing?"
St. John, a bit unsure, replied: "For a few moments, yes." So, the man went and heard Our Lady's voice in song, and left inebriated with joy. Days later, he was baptized. It was the simple modulation of Our Lady's voice that converted this soul more profoundly than all the sermons in the world!
This is because everything that touches Our Lady is absolutely exceptional and unique. This is how things that concern her should be seen and imagined.
Our Lady gives thanks for her birth
“She gave thanks to God for having been born to life into the light of this world, and for the favor of having been raised to Heaven at the hour of her birth to look upon the Divinity intuitively, as I have narrated in the first part of this History”
Her prayer is to please & serve Him
Maria de Agreda writes: “She resolved anew to spend her whole life in fulfilling the pleasure of the Lord, acknowledging that for this purpose alone life was given to her.”
That is, when she saw God, what she asked was to spend her entire life pleasing and serving Him. And she renewed this desire on each birthday.
One can see that she, who was confirmed in grace and conceived without original sin, knew that she would be the Mother of God and that she would carry in her womb Our Lord Jesus Christ for nine months.
She knew that after the Resurrection, the Real Presence would remain always present in her bosom; she would receive Communion and the Sacred Species would remain incorrupt until the Communion of the following day. She would be, therefore, a tabernacle – but with such a profound notion of the humility of the human condition that she asked God to spend her entire life serving and pleasing Him. With this she would be satisfied.
“Although she realized that in the first beginning and entrance into her life she had surpassed in merits the highest Saints and Seraphims, toward the end of her life she resolve to begin to labor anew as if she was just beginning the practice of virtue. And again she asked the Lord to assist her, to govern all her actions, and to lead her to the highest end proposed for His glory.”
You see the prayer she made. She said: “My God, my Son, my Lord, I know that from the first moment of my life, Thou didst give me more graces than even the Seraphims. But may this birthday of mine be like a new birth. And may I, with renewed strength and an even greater love, serve Thee even more during this year of life that Thou art giving me because I want to grow continually in love for Thee. There is no limit, no point at which I would stop.”
You see how sublime it is! This is how we should pray.
The first summit of the Feast
She continues: “As for the rest concerning this feast, although she was not raised to Heaven as on the day of her Immaculate Conception, yet her Divine Son descended from Heaven to be with her.”
That is, probably when her prayer became especially intense, Our Lord would descend. This is so natural, so explicable, so reasonable. What son does not visit his mother on her birthday? It was her birthday; He was her Son.
Her Divine Son descends with Angels to visit her
You see how rational everything is: The day before she prepared; on the day she said that sublime prayer. Then, at its summit, Our Lord came to visit her.
It continues: “Our Lord descended with many choirs of Angels, with the Patriarchs and Prophets and with St. Joachim, St. Anne and St. Joseph, her most chaste spouse.”
Now imagine several hierarchies of Angels with all their splendor filling her room, and singing in praise of her in union with the praises of Our Lord Jesus Christ. What a splendid harmony that would be!
All honor & praise the Birth of the Virgin
But, above all, there was the presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the unfathomable infinite source of all the joy a man can have, the absolute source of absolute joy. There He was, joining in those praises and speaking with her.
Imagine, for example, were He to address her with some of the invocations from the Litany of Loreto: Mater purissima, Mater inviolata, Mater amabilis, Mater admirabilis… All these things that are so little coming from our lips, how sonorous they would be coming from His! And what repercussions they would have in her soul! How overwhelmed with joy and utterly united with her Son she would be upon hearing this.
Reading about the celebration of her birthday, we have an idea of her greatness, holiness and perfection.
She adores God & thanks Him
“This purest of creatures, in the presence of that celestial company, adored the Lord with wonderful reverence and worship, and again gave Him thanks for having brought her into the world and for the benefits she had received for it.”
‘Nativitas tua Dei Genetrix Virgo’
“Then, the Angels did the same and sang Nativitas tua Dei Genetrix Virgo… which means: Thy birth, O virgin Mother of God, announced a great joy to the entire universe, for of thee was born the Sun of Justice, Christ our God.
“The Patriarchs and Prophets also sang their canticles of glory and thanksgiving. Adam and Eve, present in the room, thanked her, because from her had come the reparation for their sin. And the parents and spouse of the Queen gave praise because God had given them such a daughter and spouse.
“Then the Lord Himself raised the divine Mother from the ground upon which she lay prostrate and placed her at His right hand, and there new mysteries of the Divinity were manifested to her. This vision, though not intuitive but abstractive, gave her a still deeper insight and participation in the Divinity."
The hour for the gift
It is the hour for the gift. See how well ordered everything is. First there is the preparation, then the feast begins with the prayers, afterwards come the first summit when Our Lord descends and Our Lady gives thanks in ecstasy of soul and with all humility.
Then comes the second summit: Our Lord glorifies her. He seats her beside Himself, she who was prostrate on the ground – as said in the Magnificat, "Deposuit potentes de sede et exaltavit humiles – He hath put down the mighty from their seat and hath exalted the humble. He places her beside Him and gives her a birthday gift.
Our Lord wants to continuously grant Our Lady
new gifts & graces
For a soul who loves God, the true gift is to know something new about God, and to love something new in God; it is the only true gift. Because the very essence of the gift is to bring something new, not something old.
Imagine, for example, a boy who has a beautiful object hanging on the wall in his home, something the he has seen his whole life. On his birthday, his parents tell him: "Look, this object is yours now."
How different if they bring something new to give him; then there is the feeling of a gift, of something new.
And for Our Lady, only one thing had value, and that was the gift of knowing something new about God!
So, Our Lord Jesus Christ, seated her beside Him, revealed something new about God Our Lord, and therefore about Himself, because He is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. You can imagine the new level of holiness she reached. It seems incredible since we know that she was progressing in sanctity throughout her life. But now, a new level of holiness! How great was her joy and gratitude. How rich she felt herself to be with this spiritual gift! Something truly incomparable, as the celebration reached its summit.
First, the Son comes to visit His Mother; second, the Son seats His Mother at His side. Third, as if adorning her with a beautiful diamond necklace or stupendous diadem, He tells her: “Here, My Mother, are new truths about the Divine Essence.” Ecstatic with joy, she listens…
Before reading about a scene like this, we have no idea how elevated it is. In the triviality of everyday life, we cannot comprehend something so sublime. But reading this helps us to gain at least a little of that love for sublime and elevated things that should characterize the true slave of Our Lady. To like what is elevated and sublime, and to not compromise with what is vulgar and base.
The Feast concludes with a Mass said by St. John
“With these ineffable favors, she was transformed anew in her Most Holy Son, inflamed and spiritualized to labor for the Church, as if she were being reborn again.”
Our Lady was already elderly, but she reentered her springtime as if she had been born again. And she was set on fire, more or less like two flames merging into one another, she with Our Lord Jesus Christ.
The two hearts become one
We see, from outside, how the great feast was underway. And the virgin Apostle, the Apostle whom Our Lord loved most, the Apostle who all his life mourned his betrayal of Our Lord during His prayer in the Garden of Olives – we can imagine this Apostle kneeling, listening, at times beating his chest and asking for forgiveness, and at other times lost in the beauty he could hear from outside the door. But he was outside, he dared not enter; it was so elevated and high that it was impossible for any earthly creature to see it.
Just a few notes of the music was enough to fill his soul, just as this simple narration somehow fills our souls. It gives us a small idea of the plenitude of Our Lady's soul then, at that instant.
Here we see, then, the third summit: the Mass, where the Holy Sacrifice of Calvary was repeated in an unbloody way.
We also realize the great honor of St. John to celebrate the Holy Mass there, in the presence of Our Lady, illuminated like a Seraphim that descended from Heaven… Celebrating a Mass is a greater honor! To say the words by which the Transubstantiation takes place is a greater honor than everything else. With this you understand what it is to celebrate a Mass.
Our Lord is both beside her & within her
Ven. Maria de Agreda concludes:
“All these mysteries were a spectacle of new joy for the Saints, who also served as witnesses to this Communion, more worthy than was ever seen since Christ lived or ever shall be seen upon earth. Upon receiving Holy Communion her Divine Son remained with the Great Lady in sacramental form, while in his glorious and natural form He ascended to Heaven. O hidden marvels of the Divine Omnipotence!”
There the feast ends. Our Lord leaves, but He remains within her in the Eucharistic state. And she continues her daily life.
The feast ended, the marvelous scene closed, the celebration of the Nativity of Our Lady came to its end. But not a real ending. For she remained the entire day with Him inside her Heart, until the following day, and then the next day, and the next... until the final moment of her death.
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The texts of both the biographical data and the comments come from personal notes taken by Atila S. Guimarães from 1964 to 1995. Given the fact that the source is a personal notebook, it is possible that at times the biographic notes transcribed here will not rigorously follow the original text read by Prof. Plinio. The commentaries have also been adapted and translated for TIA’s site.