This article is taken from a very old publication of the Catholic.  It’s called A Day To Remember by Rev. Fr. W. H. Stinson, C.SS.R.   A portion of it was featured today on Your Morning Tradition on Magnificat Radio at Magnificatmedia.com

Almighty God spoke to satan amidst the ruins of the garden of Eden: “I shall put emnity between thee and the woman, they seed and her seed; and she shall crush they head.”

The first parents of the human race had sinned, and by their sin had lost for themselves – and for us their children – the priceless heritage of God’s grace.  Henceforth man would be born into the world burdened with a clouded intellect, a will weakened by strong rebellious passions, living under the sentence of death, and with the gates of Heaven closed against him.

th4K57ARX2But even in this somber atmosphere of tragedy, a ray of Divine Hope pierced the thunderous clouds of God’s anger.  There was to be another woman, a New Eve, a Mother of all the living; a woman who would escape the curse of sin and spiritual death, a woman of whom would be born a Saviour for the world.    

Down the centuries the inspired prayers of patriarchs and prophets constantly reverted to the coming of the Messianic King.  It was left to Isaias, the greatest of them, to remind men of the mysterious Woman of whom God Himself spoke at the dawn of time: “Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a son and his name shall be called Emmanuel, that is, God with us”.     

Throughout that long night of four thousand years between Adam and Jesus Christ, a night desolate with moral wretchedness and decay, there was this solitary star of hope – the promise of God – the Virgin whose Son would be called Emmanuel.

Then came the first glimpse of the Redemption, the dawning of the Christian day, when there was born to St. Joachim and St. Anne a little daughter.  They called her by the name of Mary.                            thYGI3U5JE

As Our Lady opened her eyes to this world even her happy parents lost in wonder at her peerless beauty could not have guessed that her birthday was to open Heaven’s gates and to allure, to charm away God from His Heavenly home.

But though the earth was silent that day, the angels of Heaven rejoiced.  They saw this child as the masterpiece of God’s creation, the Spouse of the Holy Ghost, the Mother of the Divine Son.  All the power and goodness of God has been pressed into service to enrich, to beautify and to preserve her from even the slightest stain of imperfection.  Her birthday marked the creation of the new Mother of men who was to co-operate with Christ the second Adam in restoring to mankind its lost heritage.  For this tiny babe, lying unknown and unrecognized by the world, God had great plans.  th3C9KR1VDShe was to fulfill those plans to perfection and in their fulfillment she would gain the love and veneration of all generations of men and the eternal diadem of Heaven’s Queen.    

The 8th of September, when the Church celebrates the birth of Our Lady, is indeed a day to remember.

It is also a day that should remind us that there is a certain similarity between the birth of the Blessed Virgin and that of any child – at least, there is this much resemblance: for every child born into the world Almighty God has special plans which He has carried His mind from the very beginning of eternity.  Of course, they do not include such momentous events as He assigned to Our Lady.  she is unique among the children of men.  But for each child God has a special vocation, for each a special field of labour, for each a complete series of graces to carry them through every crisis and temptation that life can bring, for each a complete plan that will bring glory to Him and sanctification and salvation to the child.  Only by the fulfillment of these plans can the child hope to know peace and happiness in that life and eternal happiness in the life to come.  All these plans are dictated by the Infinite Love which God has for each soul He creates.

The first prayer, then, on the lips of any mother as she holds her baby in her arms for the first time should be one that says, “My God, you have given this little babe into my keeping.  I offer it to Thee that it may ever serve Thee as Thou pleasest.”