I shall, this weekend and next, change the focus of this article on our Church in order to share some thoughts on the major feasts that we celebrate. On this seventeenth weekend after Pentecost, we celebrate the feast of the Nativity of Mary, the Mother of God. While this feast was actually celebrated on September 8th, we celebrate it as a community this weekend since it is one of the 12 major feasts of our Church. Our celebration is within the octave.

This weekend is also the weekend before the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross which we will observe as a community next weekend. It also is one of the 12 major feasts of our Church. This feast falls on Monday, September 14th.

While the Church does not have the custom of celebrating the earthly birthday of the Saints of God, but rather celebrates their heavenly birthday, that is the day of their death which, for them, is the beginning of eternal life. She does make exception, however, for the two greatest Saints in the Church – Mary, the Mother of God and John the Baptizer. We celebrate not only their heavenly birth but also their birth on earth like we do for Jesus Christ.

We celebrate Mary’s birth almost at the very beginning of the Church Year. This feast is so ancient that the time of its appearance cannot be accurately determined. St. John Chrysostom and a host of other saints mention it. It also seems that St. Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine, built a church in Jerusalem honoring this feast. The official introduction of the feast in the East is ascribed to Emperor Mauricius (582-602). The date of this feast was selected because a church in her honor was consecrated on this day in Jerusalem. It was also chosen because on this day nine months were completed from   December 9th, the day that the Church celebrates the conception of Mary by SS Joachim and Anna.

The day following this feast honors the memory of the Holy and Righteous Ancestors of Christ, Joachim and Anna. The veneration of these righteous grandparents of Jesus began to take root quite rapidly after the institution of the feast of Mary’s birth.

As the first major feast of the Church’s Year, it sets the tone for the year and calls us to also be bearers of Christ in our world. It highlights the role of humankind in God’s work of salvation. We believers are called to bear Christ into our world by the way that we embrace His WAY of living.