Happy Birthday, Mary!

Today we celebrate the Feast of Mary's Birthday. Of course we don't know whether or not it is her actual Birthday, but we have the opportunity to rejoice that she was born at all, and that she lived on this earth.

When I was running the Catholic radio station for the Archdiocese of Lusaka in Zambia, we made a point of celebrating Mary's Birthday. There were special programmes. Our younger announcers organised themselves for a 24-hour live broadcast, telling our listeners well in advance that the day was to be special. It was a day of rejoicing, with happy music. Parishes produced programmes with a Marian theme. There were phone-ins with people telling the audience what a difference Mary had made to their lives.

There was no sentimental exuberance about the day: we just wanted to say thank you to our mother for being herself and for supporting our own mothers. We wanted to say thank you because she said 'yes' and brought Jesus into the world. We wanted to say thank you to God for giving us our Mum! We wanted to say, ' Happy Birthday, Mary!'

God bless,
Sr. Janet