On September 8 we celebrate Mary’s birthday. No one knows for sure what day Mary was born, of course. (I did read, however, that at Medjugorje in 1984 Mary supposedly said her birthday was really August 5.) But the Church celebrates September 8 because it is exactly nine months after December 8, the feast of the Immaculate […]
Mary
It’s May. And traditionally the month of May is devoted to Mary, the mother of Jesus. Today I would like to lead you in a reflection on Mary using a contemporary painting of the Annunciation when the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary. The painting might surprise or even shock you. Here it is:
In the beautiful Christmas carol “Silent Night” we sing these words about the first Christmas: “All was calm, all was bright.” But the truth was: All was NOT calm. All was NOT bright. For Mary and Joseph, the first Christmas was filled with anxiety and ambiguity.
The writer Meister Eckhart wrote, “There is nothing in all creation so like God as stillness.” In contrast, a Hasidic Jewish teaching says, “God is an earthquake.” Which is it? Is God stillness or earthquake?
Sister of Notre Dame, teacher, student, author, speaker, listener, friend, poet, farm girl. 
The Sisters of Notre Dame of Chardon, Ohio, belong to an international congregation of more than two thousand apostolic women religious. We are one in mind and one in heart for the transformation of the world in Christ. 