“When they rewrite a woman’s birth story, they rewrite her purpose too.”
Today is Mother Mary’s Nativity.
Her birthday.
Her beginning.
And yet this morning, during a church service that was supposed to celebrate her birth, they skipped over the sacred moment entirely.
Instead of honoring the miracle of her arrival, the sermon jumped straight to the part where she’s told she’ll carry a child.
As if her story didn’t begin until a man spoke.
As if she had no holy origin of her own.
As if she wasn’t already sacred.
That’s when the ache hit.
I’ve always had a complicated relationship with the Church.
There are times I feel wrapped in its rituals, like the candles and prayers remember me.
But there are also days like today, when I want to rise up and say,
Stop erasing her.
Stop skipping her birth.
Stop making her holy only after she said yes to him.
I remember the first time I found the Protoevangelium of James, a text that many consider apocryphal.
It spoke of Mary’s birth.
It spoke of Anna and Joachim.
It spoke of a child destined to carry light because she already was the light.
And something inside me clicked.
She was not sacred because she carried him.
She carried him because she already was.
The Nativity They Never Told You
Her birthday is not just a historical date.
It is a return point for all of us.
Especially for those of us who were told that our worth begins the moment we serve someone else’s purpose.
You remember what they tried to erase.
You remember the womb.
You remember the light.
You remember your own sacred beginning.
Let her birth remind you of your own.
Today’s Reflection
Let this be your nativity too.
The moment your original memory rises.
The moment your own light returns.
“Before I carried the child,
I carried the light.
And before I carried the light,
I was the light.”
Download the Rosary of Remembrance
Use this devotional to anchor your reflection today.
Rosary of Remembrance PDF
