Feast of the Holy Name of Mary

 

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Today, September 12, is the traditional feast day of the Holy Name of Mary.

As stated in an old Missal published in 1959, "The feast was instituted by Pope Innocent XI to commemorate a victory over the Turks at the walls of Vienna in 1683.  After the Holy Name of Jesus, no name is so dear to every Christian as that of Mary, His Mother and our Mother.  By invoking it we shall obtain protection, light and strength."

You can read more about the feast day at Fountain of Elias.

A conservative priest once explained to me that "Mar" is an honorific.

As for altar or home devotional space floral arrangements for this day, see the Introibo with Flowers post on Altar Flowers for Marian Feasts. 

 

Also see the Introibo post Tulips and Lilies for the Holy Name of Mary. 

The Birth of the Virgin

Tomorrow, September 8 -- nine months after the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8 -- the Church celebrates the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

In a reflection on the birth of Mary at Tradition in Action, Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira notes:

“Scripture tells us that the tunic that Our Lord wore was a source of grace that cured those who touched it; this being the case, you can imagine how Our Lady, the Mother of the Savior, was a source of graces for whosoever would approach her . . . For this reason we can say that at her nativity, immense graces began to shine for mankind and the Devil started to be smashed. He perceived that his scepter had been cracked and would never be the same again."

 As for church flowers forGe this feast, see Gemma's Altar Flowers for Marian Feasts here.

Image:
Zurbarán’s, “Birth of the Virgin”, from Wikimedia Commons. In the public domain.

Thank You for the Light (Fitzgerald, 1936)

 

 

I've always enjoyed vignettes because they give the reader the sense of having found the fragment of a novel to be filled in.

 

Thank You for the Light by F. Scott Fitzgerald is just such a vignette.  It's only a few pages, belatedly discovered by Fitzgerald's grandchildren among his effects and published by the New Yorker in 2012 although the same magazine rejected it many decades ago.

 

It's about Mrs. Hanson, a 1930s traveling saleswoman addicted to nicotine who goes to a Catholic church hoping to light her cigarette from a votive candle.  In so doing, she has an encounter with the Blessed Mother.

 

One realizes that the end of the vignette is just the beginning of a very long journey for Mrs. Hanson.  In fact, although superficially very different, the piece reminds me of the transforming experience for Sarah Miles in the Deborah Kerr movie version of Graham Greene's novel The End of the Affair.

 

The vignette is available at the New Yorker online

UPDATE - 9-3-2026 - I just checked to make sure the link was good and discovered that yes it is but there is now a paywall.  I did find it here without a paywall.  Hopefully that post accurately quotes the original.  Unfortunately the vignette is not in the public domain due to the delay in publication based on the original rejection.