Monday, September 08, 2008

Birthday Mother

Thy birth, O Virgin Mother of God,
heralded joy to all the world.
For from thou hast risen the Sun of justice,
Christ our God.

Destroying the curse, He gave blessing;
and damning death,
He bestowed on us life everlasting.
Blessed art thou among women
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.

For from thou hast risen of Sun of justice,
Christ our God.

­ from The Divine Office - Matins (Morning Prayer)


Today, we celebrate with joy the day that Our Lady came into the world — for that brought mankind gloriously near to the coming of its Redeemer. The body of this tiny maiden would one day bear within it the Word Made Flesh...and bring forth that Word to dwell among us.
For more on this tradition and history of this Feast, see these excellent articles:
Birth of Mary at EWTN.org
The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Women for Faith and Family

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ah, that is an excellent quote from the Office! Proper antiphons like that one from a feast day are usually particularly rich and deep. However, I have a question. Did you make some changes to the translation or find a different one somewhere? The language of your quote is a bit more flowery than what I have in my breviary. I like that more "flowery" (or perhaps "elegant") language in liturgical settings. Hopefully the new translation of Holy Mass will lean that way...

Blessings,
A Seminarian

Claire said...

Dear Seminarian,

The quote from the Office was from the Birth of Mary page on the Women for Faith and Family website. I agree...the translation is beautiful, isn't it?

Here's the link:
www.wf-f.org/BirthofMary.html

Thank you for visiting and commenting!

In Christ,
Claire