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Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Sept 8)

September 08, 2025

Fr. John Colacino C.PP.S.

OPENING CHANT

Your Nativity, O Virgin, Has proclaimed joy to the whole universe! The Sun of Righteousness, Christ our God, Has shone from You, O Theotokos! By annulling the curse, He bestowed a blessing. By destroying death, He has granted us eternal Life.

COLLECT

Impart to your servants, we pray, O Lord,
the gift of heavenly grace,
that the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin
may bring deeper peace
to those for whom the birth of her Son
was the dawning of salvation.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.

FIRST READING Micah 5:1-4a

The LORD says:
You, Bethlehem-Ephrathah,
too small to be among the clans of Judah,
From you shall come forth for me
one who is to be ruler in Israel;
Whose origin is from of old,
from ancient times.
(Therefore the Lord will give them up, until the time
when she who is to give birth has borne,
And the rest of his brethren shall return
to the children of Israel.)
He shall stand firm and shepherd his flock
by the strength of the LORD,
in the majestic name of the LORD, his God;
And they shall remain, for now his greatness
shall reach to the ends of the earth;
he shall be peace.

RESPONSORY

O most strange wonder! The fount of
life is born of a barren woman, and grace
begins gloriously to bear its fruit. Rejoice, O
Joachim, inspired by God, who hast become
the father of the Theotokos. There is no other
father in mankind like unto thee, for through
thee has been given to us the maiden in
whom God came to dwell, the tabernacle of
God, the most holy mountain.

GOSPEL Matthew 1:18-23

Now this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.
When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph,
but before they lived together,
she was found with child through the Holy Spirit.
Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man,
yet unwilling to expose her to shame,
decided to divorce her quietly.
Such was his intention when, behold,
the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,
“Joseph, son of David,
do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.
For it is through the Holy Spirit
that this child has been conceived in her.
She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus,
because he will save his people from their sins.”
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.

RESPONSORY

O most strange wonder! At the behest
of the Almighty Maker of all, a fruit has
shone forth from a barren womb that has
fully ended the world’s barrenness in good.
Ye mothers, dance with the mother of the
Theotokos and cry: “Rejoice, thou who art full
of grace, the Lord is with thee, granting the
world through thee great mercy.”

HOMILY OF ST. PHOTIOS THE GREAT

* The present feast honoring the birth of the Virgin Mother of God easily carries off the glittering prize of seniority against every competitor...for without the Virgin's feast none of those that sprang out would appear...The Virgin's feast, in fulfilling the function of the root, the source, the foundation...takes on with good reason the ornament of all those other feasts, and it is conspicuous with many great boons, and is recognized as the day of universal salvation.

* After God had bestowed on man the enjoyment and mastery over everything in the Garden, it was meet for him who was entrusted with so great authority to be disciplined and trained with some command. However, after transgressing this command, the Creator did not overlook His creatures though they had plunged themselves into such great error. It was needful, therefore, that one Person of the Trinity become man, to make it manifest that the recreation too, like the creation, was their own work. Incarnation entailed a pregnancy and a mother. So it was needful that a mother should be prepared down below for the Creator, for the recreation of shattered humanity. She was to be a virgin, just as the first man had been formed of virgin earth; so the recreation too should be carried out through a virgin womb, and that no transitory pleasure, even lawful, should be as much as imagined in the Creator's birth; for the Lord suffered to be born for the deliverance of him who was a captive of pleasure.

Who then was worthy? Clearly it was she who this day strangely issued from Joachim and Anna, the barren root. It was needful, yea needful, that she who from the very cradle had by a superior reason preserved her body pure, her soul pure, her thoughts pure, should be marked out to be the Creator's Mother.

It was needful that she who had been brought to the temple as an infant, who had trodden the untrodden places, should appear as a living temple for Him Who gave her life. It was needful that she who had been born in a wondrous manner from a sterile womb, and had removed her parents' reproach, should also make good the failure of her forefathers; for she, the descendent, was able to repair the ancestral defeat, who brought forth the Savior of our race by a husbandless birth, and molded His body.

* The Lord's throne (Mary) is being prepared on earth, earthly things are sanctified, the heavenly hosts are mingled with us, and the wicked one, who first deceived us, has his power crushed, as his wiles and devices rot away.

RESPONSORY

Living pillar of chastity and bright vessel
shining with grace, glorious Anna has brought
into the world an offspring that is truly the
divine flower of virginity, and who bestows
the beauty of virginity on all who are virgins
and desire this gift of grace, granting the
faithful great mercy.

CONCLUDING CHANT

My soul doth magnify, magnify the Lord,
and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.
More honorable than the Cherubim and
more glorious beyond compare than the
Seraphim, without corruption thou gavest birth
to God the Word, true Theotokos, thee do we
magnify.
For He hath regarded the low estate of His
handmaiden; henceforth all generations will
call me blessed.
More honorable...
For He that is mighty has done great
things for me, and holy is His name, and
His mercy is on those who fear Him from
generation to generation.
More honorable..

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