All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means "God is with us." // Matthew 1:22-23

It was a well-known fact in my Midwest town: The very best birthday cakes were baked out of a small kitchen in a renovated barn, by a semi-retired lady named Donna. Year after year and with childlike wonder I would watch as she airbrushed onto her sheet cakes the things that meant the most to me and my brothers: flowers and dolphins and whales for me, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and footballs for my brothers. Her cakes blessed not just my own family, but many in our small town. Every birthday, every First Communion, every Boy Scout awards ceremony, every high school graduation, almost always included a cake baked by Donna.

It’s a beautifully thoughtful tradition in the Church that, nine months after our celebration of our Blessed Mother Mary’s Immaculate Conception on December 8th, we celebrate Mary’s own birthday today. Each and every September 8th we honor Mary’s birthday as the day of “dawn of our own salvation” (Marialis Cultus 7), for it is through Mary’s birth and subsequent yes that our world is redeemed from sin and death.

But today is also special for a different reason: Mary’s own parents, Saints Joachim and Anne, once struggled to conceive. They knew the heartache of disappointment and the fear of the unknown. Their dear little Mary was (and still is) a sign of God’s abiding Providence, a glimmer of hope in times of doubt. Her life reminds us that God is faithful, and that we are never overlooked. 

Dear Blessed Mother Mary, may our celebration of your birthday today remind us of all of these things. As we light a candle in honor of you today, pray for us that we might hold fast to hope as your own parents did. Amen.