Your birth, O Virgin Mother of God, heralded joy to the Universe; for from you rose the Sun of Justice, Christ our God. He took away the curse, He gave the blessing, and by trampling death, He gave us everlasting life.
—Byzantine Rite, Troparion of the Nativity of Our Lady
The Holy Roman Church faithfully re-echoes this ancient song of the Christian East:
Nativitas tua, Dei Genetrix Virgo, gaudium annuntiavit universo mundo; ex te enim ortus est sol justitiæ, Christus, Deus noster: qui solvens maledictionem, dedit benedictionem; et confundens mortem, donavit nobis vitam sempiternam.
— Magnificat anthem at Vespers, Nativity of Our Lady
Thus, throughout God's earth this day, all true Christians, faithful to the tradition handed down from the primitive Church, fulfil the prophecy in due time made by the Mother of God herself: Ecce enim, ex hoc beatam me dicent omnes generationes – "For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed". Let Protestants consider whether they are any ways obedient to this word of Holy Writ.
In honour of this great day, may I suggest we most respectfully hail the Blessed Virgin with the Ave Maria, as God's own angel-ambassador did? It would be good to tell our Rosaries and thus commemorate the principal events of the lives of Mary and her Divine Son. We will please her and the Almighty Who made her by imitating all her virtues, above all by giving the glory to God as she did in her Magnificat: "My soul magnifies the Lord... for He hath done great things to me".
No comments:
Post a Comment