Weather – As the weather is
on the day of Mary’s birth, so it will be for four weeks.
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I found a French hymn in honor
of Our Lady’s birthday in a 19th century almanac, but there is no further information, so I don’t know
how old it is:
Au point du jour dans nos divins concerts,
Chantons le nom de la Sainte Marie,
Et consacrons à elle nos de chants divers
Pour que chacq’un l’announce et le publie,
Et que personne ne jamais oublie
Le jour natal de la Mere de Dieu,
Nous sur la terre chantons aujourdui,
De meme que les Anges dans les cieux,
Le lever d’une étoile glorieuse.
O Rayon du Matin, Lune du Soir
Vierge éspousèe, mere de Dieu piuse,
Lampe au pecheur ecarté de l’espoir.
Nous vous chantons de Anges souveraine,
Apres Jesus, vous serez notre appui,
Et de nos coeurs serez seule la Reine,
A nous conduire à la gloire avec lui.
For Lady Day, here is a
story that I enjoy from the Golden Legend
:
There was a widow who had a son
whom she loved tenderly, and that son was taken by enemies and put in prison
fast bound. And when she heard
thereof, she wept without comfort, and prayed unto our blessed Lady with right
devout prayers that she would deliver her son. Finally she saw that her prayers availed her not, and entered
then into the church where there was a carved image of our Lady, and stood
before the image and reasoned with it in this manner, saying: “O blessed
Virgin, I have prayed often to thee for my son that thou shouldst deliver him,
and thou hast not helped me, his wretched mother. I prayed also to thy Son to help me and yet I feel no fruit.
And therefore like as my son is taken from me so shall I take away thine, and
set him in prison in hostage for mine.”
And in saying this, she
approached near and took away from the image the Child that she held in her
lap, and wrapped it in clean clothes and shut it in her chest, and locked it
fast right diligently, and was right joyful that she had so good hostage for
her son, and kept it much diligently.
And the night following, the
blessed Virgin Mary came to the son of the same widow, and opened to him the
door of the prison, and commanded him to go thence, and said to him: “Son, say
to thy mother that she yield to me again my Son since I have delivered her
son.” And he issued and came to
his mother, and told to her how our blessed Lady had delivered him, and she was
joyful, and took the Child and came to the church and delivered Him to our
Lady, saying: “Lady I thank you, for ye have delivered to me my son, and here I
deliver to you yours again, for I confess that I have mine.”
[This is right up there with
stories of people who, if their prayers are not answered, will turn the statues
of their family saints to face the wall like naughty children. Yes, they
may seem pagan and superstitious, but to me they speak of people who believe in
the communion of saints - that the saints are not some lofty personages sitting
on clouds, far away and out of earshot, their holiness like a curtain dividing
them from the Church Militant.
Rather, the Church Triumphant is part of the family, and dealt with as
such. The woman in the story above talked to Our Most Blessed Lady, Queen
of Heaven, as one mother to another, and in much the same voice of one mother
saying that the other mother has kept her son too long, and it's time to send
him home. I like that.]
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Artwork:
"Birth of the Virgin", Anna Brownell Jameson, Legends of the Madonna (1867), p. 147.
“St. Anne and the young Mary”,
Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Catholic Laity (1896), p.8.
“Nativity of the Blessed
Virgin Mary”, The Golden Legend
(1489)
