Mtr Kelli Joyce

Dear friends in Christ,

Happy Feast of the Nativity of St. Mary! Of course we don’t know exactly what day Mary was born, but this is the day when the Church celebrates the fact that it happened.

As many of you know, I grew up Baptist. We celebrated Christmas and Easter and that was it, as far as Church holidays went. And we certainly didn’t observe anything that had to do with the Virgin Mary. We liked her fine, don’t get me wrong - but there was a lot of suspicion around paying too much attention to her. That, of course, would be unacceptably Catholic.

Because this is my background, I’m sympathetic to people who might wonder why we’re celebrating Mary’s birthday at all. Here’s what I think: it is good for us to remember that God has been working out the plan of salvation since the beginning of time, in the grand events of history and the seemingly ordinary happenings of our lives. God knew that Mary of Nazareth would be the mother of the Messiah before she was even born. Her whole life was suffused with divine grace.

Our lives, too, are part of the plan of God. God knows us, too, from before we are even born, and fills our lives with grace. And God calls us, too, to risk ourselves in order to share that grace by making Christ present to a hurting world.

In peace,
Mtr Kelli