Catholics Celebrate Birth of St. Mary

Virginia Beach, VA, September 08, 2006 --(PR.com)-- Today, September 8th is a Catholic Feast day celebrating the birth of the Mother of God.

This is the first feast day in the liturgical year, and is aptly celebrated as such because Catholic believe St. Mary to be the new Eve and the Theotokos (Greek for Mother of God).

St. Mary's conception was very much unique in that she was blessed by unique grace to receive the merits of Christ's death on the Cross at the moment of her conception and thus was conceived free from the guilt of original sin.

St. Mary's parents were Sts. Joachim and Anne. When St. Mary was three years old she gave herself to the service of God, and was consecrated to religious life.

When she started to reach her teenage years, it was determined that she was too old to remain at the temple. An older man, St. Joseph, was placed as her guardian; and she was instructed to live with him.

When the Archangel Gabriel appears to her and tells her that she has been chosen to be the Mother of the Redeemer, she agreed in an act of unsurpassed faith, saying, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord: Be it done unto me according to thy word."

From that point on, Jesus became Mary's son. We can not separate Jesus from Mary. He spent thirty years of his mortal life with his Mother, who he gave a willing and perfect obedience.

On this same feast day, the Legion of Mary (www.legionofmarytidewater.com) celebrates 85 years since its founding.  The Legion of Mary, a Catholic organization devoted to Jesus through Mary, had its first meeting on the night of September 7th, 1921, the eve of the feast of the birth of the Mother of God.

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