The Daily Gospel for Tuesday, 8 September 2015

The Daily Gospel for Tuesday, 8 September 2015
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary - Feast 

THE NATIVITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
Feast

The birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary announced joy and the near approach of salvation to the lost world. Mary was brought forth in the world not like other children of Adam, infected with the loathsome contagion of sin, but pure, holy, beautiful, and glorious, adorned with all the most precious graces which became her who was chosen to be the Mother of God. She appeared indeed in the weak state of our mortality; but in the eyes of Heaven she already transcended the highest seraph in purity, brightness, and the richest ornaments of grace.
If we celebrate the birthdays of the great ones of this earth, how ought we to rejoice in that of the Virgin Mary, presenting to God the best homage of our praises and thanksgiving for the great mercies He has shown in her, and imploring her mediation with her Son in our behalf! Christ will not reject the supplications of his mother, whom He was pleased to obey whilst on earth. Her love, care, and tenderness for Him, the title and qualities which she bears, the charity and graces with which she is adorned, and the crown of glory with which she is honored, must incline Him readily to receive her recommendations and petitions.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
 The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary - Feast
The Book of Micah 5:1(2) But you, Beit-Lechem near Efrat,
so small among the clans of Y’hudah,
out of you will come forth to me
the future ruler of Isra’el,
whose origins are far in the past,
back in ancient times.
2 (3) Therefore he will give up [Isra’el]
only until she who is in labor gives birth.
Then the rest of his kinsmen
will return to the people of Isra’el.
3 (4) He will stand and feed his flock
in the strength of Adonai,
in the majesty of the name
of Adonai his God;
and they will stay put, as he grows great
to the very ends of the earth;
4 (5) and this will be peace.
If Ashur invades our land,
if he overruns our fortresses,
we will raise seven shepherds against him,
eight leaders of men.
Psalm 13:6 (5) But I trust in your grace,
my heart rejoices as you bring me to safety.
(6) I will sing to Adonai, because he gives me even more than I need.
The Holy Gospel of Yeshua the Messiah according to Saint Matthew 1:1 This is the genealogy of Yeshua the Messiah, son of David, son of Avraham:
2 Avraham was the father of Yitz’chak,
Yitz’chak was the father of Ya‘akov,
Ya‘akov was the father of Y’hudah and his brothers,
3 Y’hudah was the father of Peretz and Zerach (their mother was Tamar),
Peretz was the father of Hetzron,
Hetzron was the father of Ram,
4 Ram was the father of ‘Amminadav,
‘Amminadav was the father of Nachshon,
Nachshon was the father of Salmon,
5 Salmon was the father of Bo‘az (his mother was Rachav),
Bo‘az was the father of ‘Oved (his mother was Rut),
‘Oved was the father of Yishai,
6 Yishai was the father of David the king.
David was the father of Shlomo (his mother was the wife of Uriyah),
7 Shlomo was the father of Rechav‘am,
Rechav‘am was the father of Aviyah,
Aviyah was the father of Asa,
8 Asa was the father of Y’hoshafat,
Y’hoshafat was the father of Yoram,
Yoram was the father of ‘Uziyahu,
9 ‘Uziyahu was the father of Yotam,
Yotam was the father of Achaz,
Achaz was the father of Hizkiyahu,
10 Hizkiyahu was the father of M’nasheh,
M’nasheh was the father of Amon,
Amon was the father of Yoshiyahu,
11 Yoshiyahu was the father of Y’khanyahu and his brothers
at the time of the Exile to Bavel.
12 After the Babylonian Exile, Y’khanyahu was the father of Sh’altiel,
Sh’altiel was the father of Z’rubavel,
13 Z’rubavel was the father of Avihud,
Avihud was the father of Elyakim,
Elyakim was the father of ‘Azur,
14 ‘Azur was the father of Tzadok,
Tzadok was the father of Yakhin,
Yakhin was the father of El’ichud,
15 El’ichud was the father of El‘azar,
El‘azar was the father of Mattan,
Mattan was the father of Ya‘akov,
16 Ya‘akov was the father of Yosef the husband of Miryam,
from whom was born the Yeshua who was called the Messiah.18 Here is how the birth of Yeshua the Messiah took place. When his mother Miryam was engaged to Yosef, before they were married, she was found to be pregnant from the Ruach HaKodesh. 19 Her husband-to-be, Yosef, was a man who did what was right; so he made plans to break the engagement quietly, rather than put her to public shame. 20 But while he was thinking about this, an angel of Adonai appeared to him in a dream and said, “Yosef, son of David, do not be afraid to take Miryam home with you as your wife; for what has been conceived in her is from the Ruach HaKodesh. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Yeshua, [which means ‘Adonai saves,’] because he will save his people from their sins.”
22 All this happened in order to fulfill what Adonai had said through the prophet,
23 “The virgin will conceive and bear a son,
and they will call him ‘Immanu El.”[Matthew 1:23 Isaiah 7:14]
(The name means, “God is with us.”)
The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary - Feast
Commentary of the day:
Saint Andrew of Crete (660-740), monk and Bishop
Sermon 1 for the Nativity of the Mother of God: PG 97, 812-816
Mary, firstfruits of the new creation In the beginning man had been formed out of pure and stainless earth (Gn 2,7) but his nature had been deprived of its innate dignity when it was stripped of grace by the fall of disobedience and cast out of the land of life. In place of a paradise of delight it had nothing but a corruptible life to hand on as its hereditary patrimony, a life from which death would follow together with its consequence: the corruption of the race. We had all of us preferred the world here below to that on high. No hope of salvation remained; the state of our nature cried to heaven for help. There was no law that could heal our infirmity… In the end, according to his good pleasure, the divine shaper of the universe decided to bring a new world, another world into being – a world of harmony and youth – from which the overwhelming contagion of sin and of its companion, death, would be cast out. A wholly new life, free and unencumbered, would be held out to us who would find in baptism a new and wholly divine birth…
But how to bring this plan to fruition ? Was it not fitting that a most pure and stainless virgin should first of all place herself at the service of this mysterious plan and should become pregnant with the infinite being in a manner transcending the natural law?... Therefore, just as in paradise he had drawn from the virgin, stainless earth a little clay with which to fashion the first Adam, so he made use of another kind of earth, so to speak, when he brought about his own incarnation, namely that pure and immaculate Virgin, chosen from among all creatures. In her he remade us anew using our own substance and he, Adam’s Creator, became a new Adam that the old might be saved by the new and eternal.
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