Death through Eve, life through Mary...

 "When the most holy Virgin was born, 
the whole world was made radiant;

blessed is the branch and blessed is the stem 
which bore such holy fruit."
Today's Liturgy of the Hours, Antiphon 2

 

  

FEAST of the NATIVITY

of the BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

September 8

"This radiant and manifest coming of God to men 
most certainly needed a joyful prelude 
to introduce the great gift of salvation to us.  

The present festival, the birth of the Mother of God, is the prelude, 

while the final act is the foreordained union of the Word with flesh.  
Today the Virgin is born, tended and formed, and prepared for her role 
as Mother of God, who is the universal King of the ages." 

St Andrew of Crete, bishop - Oratio 1: PG 97

Raul Berzosa ~ Holy Mother

“Another woman is now given thee in place of the first,

a prudent and humble Eve instead of the proud and foolish one,

an Eve who shall offer thee, not the tree of death but the

Bread of Life, and who shall yield thee, not the poisoned fruit

of bitterness but the delicious fruit of immortality.

Change thou, therefore, the wicked words of self-excuse into

the voice of praise and thanksgiving, and say to the Lord,

‘The woman whom Thou gavest me, gave me of the 
tree of life and I did eat; and it has become in my mouth 
 sweeter than honey, because in it Thou hast given me life.’

Behold here the purpose for which the Angel was sent from God

to the Virgin. O Virgin, worthy of all admiration, deserving of

all honour! O most wonderful of women and venerable over all.”

  St Bernard of Clairvaux

 

 "Death through Eve, life through Mary." ~ Saint Jerome 

"The day of the Nativity of the Mother of God is a day of
universal joy, because through the Mother of God, the entire
human race was renewed, and the sorrow of the first mother, Eve
was transformed into joy." ~ Saint John Damascene

 

"We never give more honour to Jesus than when we honour
His Mother, and we honour her simply and solely to honour Him
all the more perfectly. We go to her only as a way leading
to the goal we seek - Jesus, her Son. ... She is an echo of God,
speaking and repeating only God.  

If you say "Mary," she says "God." 

Saint Louis Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, #94

Click here: Nativity of the BVM - YouTube (song +images - lovely! - 2 mins)

Click here: The Birth of Mary - YouTube (Commentary + images - 2 mins)

Click here: Birth of Mary

 Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Mary, mother of the Bread of Life, 
pray for us!