"Mary means Star of the sea, for as mariners are guided to port by the ocean star, so Christians attain to glory through Mary's maternal intercession." -St. Thomas Aquinas

What is more grounding than finding comfort and consolation in our mother? True, our human mothers are but creatures. They fail. They disappoint. They cannot always be for us what we need. Yet we have been given an unfathomable treasure in the Faith: the gift of our Blessed Mother. It’s appropriate to celebrate several feast days throughout the year in her honor because we are able to bring our focus back to what it means to love.

If there was ever a human who lived the essence of love, it was Our Lady. Her perfection does not lead to our downfall. It is instead an invitation to become more, to lean more closely into her bosom and to trust her unfailing help in times of trouble, crisis, and even in our everyday lives.

Leaning into the heart of Mary naturally and necessarily leads us to the heart of Jesus. And in these two hearts – burning and yearning for us more than we believe at any given moment – is the key to what it means to be fully alive as a Catholic Christian today. It’s not so much about dogma and doctrine, though these are of course essential to understanding our faith on an intellectual level. It’s more about relationship – a thriving, vital source of life that renews us each day. And that’s what honoring our Blessed Mother does for us – renews us, revives us, and reminds us who we are and who we are meant to be.

The Birth of Our Lady

It’s interesting to ponder why the Church celebrates the birth of Mary, also known as the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, particularly because Catholic tradition typically only commemorates saints’ feast days as the day of their death. But there are two saints whose birthdays we honor – Our Lady and St. John the Baptist – for a couple of reasons.

One, both are considered significant in salvation history; and two, both are considered holy from conception – Mary because of her Immaculate Conception and St. John the Baptist, because he was sanctified in St. Elizabeth’s womb when he leapt for joy as he recognized Jesus in Mary’s womb.

The reason for selecting the exact date of September 8 is largely based on tradition, as well as logic following the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8. (9 months later would be her birth, of course.) A document containing a hymn from the sixth century has been well-preserved and states the Virgin’s birthday. Another possible source (unsubstantiated) relates that St. Maurilius received a revelation on the eve of September 8, 430 A.D., in which he heard angels singing. When he asked them why, they said it was in honor of the Blessed Mother’s birth.

One could dispute the details surrounding the exact date, but that is not the point of such a beautiful and widespread devotion. If we meditate on the reasons why we should honor such an exemplary model of holiness, we would immediately realize that the date does not matter so much as the principle behind the celebration: namely, that our dear Blessed Mother was the sacred vessel by which our Lord, Jesus, was born into the world. It seems we can more deeply appreciate and love her, then, by way of keeping this feast day holy every year.

Holy Name of the Virgin

A lesser known feast day in the Catholic Church, the Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary was first installed by Pope Innocent XI on September 12 in 1684, then fell off the Roman liturgical calendar and was reinstated by St. John Paul II in 2002. Several popular saints honored Mary’s name, some by taking on a version of Mary in their religious name to signify their entrustment to her care; such saints who advocated for the Feast of the Holy Name of Mary include St. Anthony of Padua, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, and St. Alphonsus Liguori.

This feast is said to be a counterpart to the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus, mainly because Our Lady is the vessel by which we receive countless graces from her Son due to her intercession. One could say that celebrating this feast day is a form of continuing or maintaining one’s increasing ardor to our Blessed Mother as part of a Marian Consecration. I think of how the Immaculate Heart and Sacred Heart are often depicted together, so much that they are considered the United Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

This perfect union can only mean that, as we increase our love for Mary, she more quickly and firmly elevates us to Jesus. One can never love Mary too much, because Jesus’ love for His mother was exhaustive, and ours will never be complete in this life. By going to Mary and celebrating this beautiful feast of her holy name, we honor Jesus, too, and we necessarily become closer to Him who first began life through her.

Our Lady of Sorrows

Celebrated on September 15 every year, the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows has become popular based on the pious devotion called the Seven Sorrows of Mary, or the Seven Dolors. These are specifically named because of Simeon’s prophecy that a sword would pierce Mary’s heart. The focus of this feast day is for the devotee to journey with Our Lady as a grieving mother who watched her son perish by crucifixion. Thus, it was originally commemorated around Good Friday, in conjunction with the Stations of the Cross devotion.

Again, we can clearly see how devotion to Our Blessed Mother leads us to deeper meditation on the suffering of her son. The feast was originally called Our Lady of Compassion, likely because the word compassion means “to suffer with.” One who undertakes Mary’s suffering becomes more intimately connected with the sufferings of Jesus on Calvary.

Our Lady of Sorrows has become an incredible comfort, therefore, to anguished mothers whose children perhaps have gone astray, left the Church, become addicted, are chronically or terminally ill, or any other such suffering. The strife of a child means that the pain wounding a mother’s heart is as great, if not greater, than the child’s struggle. Perhaps this is why Mary is such a constant source of consolation, especially in the form of one who suffers.

It can be said that one born without sin, such as Mary, who concurrently suffers with her son and her adopted spiritual children would be an incredible spiritual juxtaposition. How can this be? How can a sinless human know of suffering and pain? One might also wonder how God-made-man could also truly, comprehensively understand human suffering.

Suffering is not contingent upon sin, however. While suffering exists because of sin – original, social, and personal – it is not dependent upon one being sinful or exhibiting sin. In other words, suffering with another person does not require that both parties are steeped in sin. Rather, suffering by way of compassion as a spiritual practice supersedes sin. It is a form of great, heroic love to suffer with and for another person. This is perhaps why great saints, particularly the mystics, knew quite literally what a wounded, broken, and languishing heart felt like. They, like Our Lady and Jesus, willingly took on the suffering of others out of love for a particular soul. Not wanting the soul to despair or maybe simply to assuage some of the heavy burden upon that soul, the saint who suffers does so willingly, consciously, and intentionally.

This is how we can be sure that our suffering is not in vain. By following in the footsteps of Our Lady and closely behind or beside Jesus, we bring our own brokenness as a token, a simple and fallible offering to them. A true offering of love is not flawless; instead, it is vulnerable and transparent. It leads one to love the wounds of others through humility.

How do you honor Our Lady this month? Leave a comment!