Happy Birthday, Mary!

Today the Catholic Church celebrates Mary’s birthday. Now, as a Lutheran before I was welcomed home to the Catholic Church, we didn’t talk much about Mary, except for right around Christmas, obviously, and maybe once or twice when we would talk about the wedding at Cana or around Easter. Other than that, Mary was just a character in the background. To me, though, I always loved Mary. I couldn’t explain it, but I have always held Mary in a high regard, even before I joined the Catholic Church. When I was young, much like other young children, my favorite part of decorating for Christmas was when we would put out the nativity scene. Our family’s nativity set was ceramic and the tallest figure was maybe 3 or 3½ inches high. Mary was my favorite, wearing white and robin’s egg blue with gold accents. She was kneeling and I would always place her on the right of the little baby Jesus in his manger. (Unfortunately, our baby Jesus figure either broke or got lost when I was very young and we could never find another in the correct size, so later we had our small figures with a giant baby Jesus in a huge manger!) I didn’t know much about Mary. I knew that she was Jesus’ mother….aaaand that was about it. All I knew was that I was drawn to her for some reason.

Later, when I began learning more about the Catholic faith, I learned more about Mary. As a Protestant, I had heard that Catholics worship Mary and the Saints, but quickly learned that was completely false. I learned that we pray to Mary and/or Saints for their intercession, much like we ask our friends and family to pray for us. I learned that Mary was given to us by Jesus to be our mother, and as our mother, she points us toward her son. She doesn’t want the glory - she knows that all glory should go to her Son.

Mary is an amazing woman. Think of her life…not a “normal” life by any means. Take a moment today and think about all she saw, all she experienced. A good starting point is to pray the rosary. Look at and meditate on the various mysteries. Mary was there for all of them. Can you imagine experiencing all these things? I can’t! How strong of a woman Mary must be to have handled all those things! We should all take a cue from Mary to look to her Son for all things!

Oh...and have a piece of cake today to celebrate!

Hail, holy Queen enthroned above, O Maria.
Hail, Queen of mercy and of love, O Maria.
Triumph, all ye cherubim, Sing with us, ye seraphim,
Heaven and earth resound the hymn:
Salve, salve, salve Regina!