NIGHT PRAYER: Monday 9/8

 Only three birthdays are celebrated on the church's liturgical calendar: the birth of Jesus on December 25, the birth of John the Baptist on June 24 and the birth of Mary on September 8. None of the actual  birth dates of these three are known but they are connected in very interesting ways- see the end of the post!

Mary, loving Mother of Jesus,

    our Mother, too, his sisters and brothers,

indeed, the Lord our God is with you,

    his chosen, his own, his beloved... 

     

Favored and blessed are you among women 

    and holy, divine is the fruit of your womb:

        Jesus, our Savior, Redeemer and Brother...

 

Holy Mary, Mother of God and Mother of all,
    pray for us now in the troubles we face:
        we're sinners who need 

            all the help we can get...

  

And pray for us too, when our life is done,
    when Jesus your Son will come, we pray, 

to take us home to be with him,

    to be with you 
and with all who've before us,
    marked with the sign of faith...  

 

Protect us, Lord, as we lie awake
    and watch over us while we sleep
that awake, we might keep watch with you
    and asleep, rest in your peace,..

Amen.  

Birthdays should be happy and joyful so I've chosen this piece of happy, joyful music for our prayer tonight.  It's the wonderful Bobby McFerrin leading a large audience in singing with him the beautiful Bach-Gounod Ave Maria. The audience here is much more familiar with tune than with the lyrics of the Gounod Ave - but I've included, below the video, the lyrics you'll need to join in the singing!

If a video doesn't appear below, click here! 
  

Ave Maria, 

gratia plena, 

Dominus tecum.
Benedicta tu 

in mulieribus,
et benedictus 

fructus ventris tui, Iesus.

 
Sancta Maria, Sancta Maria,

Maria,  
ora pro nobis,

nobis peccatoribus,
nunc et in hora 

in hora mortis nostrae. 

Amen.

 

About the dates of those holy birthdays...

*** Around the year 430 A.D. the Church began celebrating the Annunciation on March 25, remembering  the angel's announcement to Mary that she would conceive and carry the Christ child in her womb. It was commonly believed in those days that Christ was conceived on March 25 and crucified on March 25.  If you count nine months forward from this feast celebrating the Christ Child's conception, you land on December 25 - the day on which we commemorate his birth.

It was in the early sixth century that the Eastern Church (whose liturgical calendar begins in September) began to celebrate a feast of the Nativity of Mary on September 8.  This date on the calendar led to choosing December 8 (nine months earlier) for the celebration of the Immaculate Conception.

In Luke's account of the Annunciation (observed on March 25) he reports that Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist, was "in her sixth month" and so, since the late 5th century, John's birth has been celebrated on June 24th. (Why not the 25th? This is likely due to different methods of counting the days of a month between the Roman and Gregorian calendars.)

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