The Feast of Mary, The Mother of the Church, Justine Martyr, and my birthday!

Today we commemorate a new feast in the liturgical year, The Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church. This Feast Day was started by Pope Francis in 2018.

It seems that the world is in desperate need of Mary’s maternal care this week with all of the unrest and disease.

Ideas for celebrating most Marian Feast Days are found on this post.

June 1 is usually the Feast day of Justin Martyr.

From Early Christian Writings.com

Well, they say, if then the flesh rise, it must rise the same as it falls; so that if it die with one eye, it must rise one-eyed; if lame, lame; if defective in any part of the body, in this part the man must rise deficient. How truly blinded are they in the eyes of their hearts! For they have not seen on the earth blind men seeing again, and the lame walking by His word. All things which the Saviour did, He did in the first place in order that what was spoken concerning Him in the prophets might be fulfilled, “that the blind should receive sight, and the deaf hear,” and so on; but also to induce the belief that in the resurrection the flesh shall rise entire. For if on earth He healed the sicknesses of the flesh, and made the body whole, much more will He do this in the resurrection, so that the flesh shall rise perfect and entire. In this manner, then, shall those dreaded difficulties of theirs be healed.

This year on birthday, after spending 9 weeks sheltering at home, avoiding people and giving up activities and events, I’m tapping into gratitude and hope. Grateful for the things I have, and the people I love, and for all of my life experiences. And I am hopeful that the future will make these losses a thing of the past. And with this year’s birthday falling on a feast of Mary’s motherhood, I’m going to focus on cherishing my own motherhood, with all of the joys and lessons that have come from that.

Of course, none of that would have been possible without my partner, Mr. Pete. We’ve weathered many storms together and learned that nothing lasts forever. With him, I’ve learned to cherish the moment and let the rest of it go. The main thing is to give God my own personal fiat, every day, to the best of my ability. Here’s to my next journey around the sun.