It's the Feast of
Nativity of the Blessed Virgin,
2nd Class, with the color of
White. In this episode: the meditation: "The Thought of Death", today's news from the Church: "Sisters of the Society of Saint Pius X: Their Life in 100 Images", a preview of this week's episode of The SSPX Podcast: "Audiobook Chapter 16", and today's thought from the Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.
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Sources Used Today:
- "The Thought of Death" — From the Assumption to Advent
- "Sisters of the Society of Saint Pius X: Their Life in 100 Images" (FSSPX.news)
- The SSPX Podcast: "Audiobook Chapter 16" (SSPX Podcast)
- The Spiritual Life — Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (Angelus Press)
Please support our new project, the Archbishop Lefebvre Biography Audiobook:
The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary is one of only three birthdays celebrated in the Church's liturgical year: the birth of Christ, the birth of Saint John the Baptist, and the birth of Our Lady.
Interestingly, the Bible never tells us when Mary was born.
Even the names of her parents, Saints Joachim and Anne, come from ancient Christian tradition rather than Scripture. One of the earliest sources is the second-century Protoevangelium of James, which tells the beautiful story of Joachim and Anne as an elderly, childless couple whose long prayers were finally answered with the birth of Mary.
The feast itself seems to have developed first in Jerusalem, where Christians honored a church dedicated to Saint Anne near the traditional site of Mary's childhood home. By the sixth century, Mary's birth was being celebrated in the Christian East, and over the following centuries the feast spread westward to Rome.
But why September 8?
There's actually a wonderfully simple explanation.
The Church celebrates Mary's Immaculate Conception on December 8.
Count forward nine months.
September 8.
In fact, historically the Nativity came first. The date of the Immaculate Conception was later calculated backward nine months from Mary's traditional birthday.
The feast developed some wonderfully local customs across Catholic Europe. In parts of France, it became associated with the grape harvest, and farmers brought their finest grapes to church to be blessed. In Austria and other Alpine regions, Mary's birthday became connected with thanksgiving for the summer harvest.
One of the most colorful celebrations developed in Malta, where September 8 became known as the Bambina, or "Little Mary." Statues of the infant Virgin are carried through decorated streets amid processions, music, fireworks, and enormous crowds. The date gained even greater significance because several major military victories in Maltese history occurred around September 8, including the end of the Great Siege of Malta in 1565.
In parts of Italy, devotion focuses on Maria Bambina, Mary as a little child. Small statues show the infant Mary wrapped in swaddling clothes, sometimes resting in an ornate cradle. One of the best-known shrines to Maria Bambina is in Milan, where devotion to the image became especially popular in the nineteenth century.
There's something charming about this feast because it celebrates no miracle Mary performed and no words she spoke.
She's a baby.
That's the whole point.
The world didn't know it yet, but the little girl born to Joachim and Anne would become the Mother of God. Salvation history was quietly moving forward in a home where, as far as the neighbors could tell, a perfectly ordinary child had just been born.
Holy Mary, whose birth announced the approaching dawn of our salvation, pray for us.
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What is the SSPX Podcast?
The SSPX Podcast is produced by Angelus Press, which has as its mission the fortification of traditional Catholics so that they can defend the Faith, and reaching out to those who have not yet found Tradition.
What is the SSPX?
The main goal of the Society of Saint Pius X is to preserve the Catholic Faith in its fullness and purity, to teach its truths, and to diffuse its virtues, especially through the Roman Catholic priesthood.
Authentic spiritual life, the sacraments, and the traditional liturgy are its primary means of bringing this life of grace to souls.
Although the traditional Latin Mass is the most visible and public expression of the work of the Society, we are committed to defending Catholic Tradition in its entirety: all of Catholic doctrine and morals as the Church has always defended them. What people need is the Catholic Faith, without compromise, with all the truth and beauty which accompanies it.
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