She Stood Firm with the Son

Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

By Beth DeCristofaro

https://orthodoxportlandmaine.org/tag/birth-of-mary/

The LORD says: You, Bethlehem-Ephrathah, too small to be among the clans of Judah, From you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel …He shall stand firm and shepherd his flock by the strength of the LORD.  (1 Micah 5:1, 4)

And those he predestined he also called; and those he called he also justified; and those he justified he also glorified. (Romans 8:30)

…the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary, your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:20-21)

Piety

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,

One God forever and ever.

    (Collect from the Mass for the Day)

Study

Do Not Be Afraid.  God calls, justifies and glorifies.  God chooses from the small and powerless.  God chose a poor, illiterate peasant girl to be the Theotokos, the Queen of All Saints, the Mother of the Universal Church.  She stood firm even unto the Cross.

God chose another poor girl who grew up under communism to be God’s light to the poorest of the poor and Mother Theresa stood firm to bring light to the hopeless.  God also chose a socialist-leaning, cynical journalist to serve the homeless in this country.  Dorothy Day stood firm following the Shepherd; she modeled God’s profligate mercy.  God has chosen countless others.  God calls each one of us, Cursillstas, imperfect, ordinary sinners to stand firm and walk with the Shepherd. 

Action

Are we walking with Him as Mary, Theresa, Dorothy and others elected to do each and every of the often difficult days of their lives? Today look at every person you encounter and see Dorothy, Theresa or Mary.  How would you react to them, treat them, talk with them, interact with them if he/she were the saint whose face you are imaging?  God gives her/him the chance to be a saint.  God sees the promise of sainthood in each of us as well.