Friends of the Rosary:
Today, September 8, nine months after the December 8 celebration of the Immaculate Conception, is the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Savior of the world's mother.
St. Joachim was deeply grieved, along with his wife St. Anne, by their childlessness. They began to devote themselves to prayer and fasting, wondering whether their inability to conceive a child might signify God's displeasure with them.
It turned out that the couple was to be blessed even more abundantly than Abraham and Sarah. An angel revealed to Anne that all generations would honor their future child: "The Lord has heard your prayer, and you shall conceive, and shall bring forth, and your seed shall be spoken of in all the world."
Mary's parents, along with the temple priests, subsequently decided that she would be offered to God as a consecrated Virgin for the rest of her life, and enter a chaste marriage with the carpenter Joseph.
Saint Augustine described the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary as an event of cosmic and historic significance, and an appropriate prelude to the birth of Jesus Christ. "She is the flower of the field from whom bloomed the precious lily of the valley," he wrote.
The Blessed Virgin occupies a unique place in the history of salvation, and she has the highest mission ever commended to any creature. We rejoice that the Mother of God is our Mother, too.
We call upon the Blessed Virgin as "Cause of our joy", one of the most beautiful titles in her litany.
Ave Maria!
Jesus, I Trust In You!
+ Mikel A. | RosaryNetwork.com, New York

• September 8, 2021, Today’s Rosary on YouTube | Daily broadcast at 7:30 pm ET