Our Blessed Mother

As the earth brings forth its shoots, and a garden makes its seeds spring up, so will the Lord God make justice spring up, and praise before all the nations. (Isaiah 61:11) 

September 8, 2026

Hello Everyone — 

What do you get for a woman who has everything?? Literally!!

Today the Church celebrates the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Gospel for her feast is the often-abbreviated Matthean text that is also prescribed for Mass celebrated at the Christmas Vigil because it provides a rather lengthy list of the generations of Jesus’ ancestry from Abraham all the way down to Jacob, Joseph's father (Mt 1:1-16, 18-23). The passage ultimately ends by focusing on one of Joseph’s dreams. Despite all of that, we are given only a glimpse of Mary.

But think about it. When you pick up a novel, you may be given only glimpses of a particular character in the story. And yet from these glimpses, it is possible to deduce quite a lot about the character in question because these glimpses are not there by chance. They have been deliberately included by the author. And just because you only get glimpses of some character, it does not mean that the character is a minor one with only a small role to play in the story.

Think about this in relation to our Blessed Mother. She puts in only the occasional appearance in the Gospel stories. Even on this feast commemorating her nativity, we hear about how her Son comes to birth more than her own.

But the appearances we encounter are not chance ones. They have been purposely recounted by the evangelists. Therefore, there is much to be gleaned from them. And if taken collectively, we can assemble a picture of the kind of person Mary was. Even though the resulting image may lack detail, the core or essence is certainly there. What we have in the New Testament is not intended as a biography of Mary as much as an already developing theology.

Does this mean that we are left to construct a large structure on a very narrow foundation? Not at all! The snippets pertaining to Mary are highly significant. It is not just scanty tidbits of biographical data. 

Focusing on when Mary appears in scripture, we notice that they are at crucial moments in the life of her divine Son. What does a cursory search provide?

• Mary appears at the start of it all — it is she who conceives and gives birth to Jesus and later searches for Him in the temple when He gives His folks the slip. She is then present at the beginning of his ministry — recall the wedding feast at Cana.  
• Mary similarly is there at the end of the story. She is found standing below the cross at Calvary. She is no less present with the Apostles in the upper room waiting for the coming of the Spirit and the birth of the Church at Pentecost. 

From these it is possible to conclude that Mary had — and has — a central role to play in the story of salvation. And these glimpses of Mary help us to better understand her character.

We come to know Mary as a loving and caring person. Every time we encounter her in the Gospels, we see the same thing. We see someone who was concerned about other people. Not only did the light of God’s love illuminate her own life — but it shone through her and illuminated the lives of all those around her. Everything that Mary does — everything she says — everything she is — is so because of her profound love for her Son — and her profound love for us.

Today, with the Church, we celebrate the birth of the woman who walked with Jesus at every milestone of his life. In Mary, may we, too, find the courage to walk faithfully with her divine Son until our days are done.

Mary, Mother of the Church, pray for us. 

As I do for you, please pray for me,

Most Reverend Jeffrey S. Grob
Archbishop of Milwaukee