Msgr. Roger J. Landry
National Director, The Pontifical Mission Societies
Daily Reflection for September 8, 2025
Here is the video of today’s reflection.
The YouTube generated transcript for today’s reflection is:
I’m Monsignor Roger Landry, national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies. It’s September 8th, the feast and nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We only celebrate three birthdays in the church’s liturgical calendar. The first is obviously Jesus’s birth every Christmas, December 25th. The second is St. John the Baptist’s birth every June 24th, 6 months almost to the day before Jesus himself was born. And the third was Mary, which we celebrate today every September 8th.
Think about the joy Jochim and Anne would have had when at long last they finally gave birth to a daughter. The love that they had, the gratitude that they had to God. The whole church echoes that gratitude. But even more than Jochiman, think about what it would have been like for the word of God, the second person of the blessed trinity, the one who when he took on humanity 14 years later would become Mary’s son. How awesome that would have been to create the soul, the immaculate soul of his mother in St. Anne’s womb. We share Jesus’s joy as well as God the Father’s, God the Holy Spirit’s. What is it like to celebrate the feast of the nativity of our Lady? In the gospel today, we have the passage that describes how a virgin will conceive and bear a son and he would be named Emanuel, God with us. To celebrate this feast, the church wants us to ponder why Mary was born. She was born in relation to her son. She was born to be his mother, to be his disciple, to be his apostle, to be the intercessor who would help inaugurate his hour, to be his collaborator even in heaven, praying for us and all those entrusted to her by Jesus at the cross.
Mary was related to Jesus from the first moment of her conception, preserved free from anything that could separate her from him. And she’s praying for us on this birthday that we will receive a birthday present through her, which is a similar conformity to Jesus, which is a similar desire to unite all aspects of our life to him. The whole reason why we were created by the same Jesus was to be able to fulfill our vocation as his followers and our mission as his apostles. Missionaries all across the globe are celebrating September 8th today. They’re turning to our Lady and asking for the prayer of the queen of the apostle, the mother of all missionaries to bless their work so that others may come to realize the reason for which they were created and born which is in light of the blessed fruit of Mary’s womb.
Today the whole church prays together: Hail Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. God bless you.
The Gospel reading on which the reflection was based was:
Gospel
This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.
When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph,
but before they lived together,
she was found with child through the Holy Spirit.
Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man,
yet unwilling to expose her to shame,
decided to divorce her quietly.
Such was his intention when, behold,
the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,
“Joseph, son of David,
do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.
For it is through the Holy Spirit
that this child has been conceived in her.
She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus,
because he will save his people from their sins.”
All this took place to fulfill
what the Lord had said through the prophet:
Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means “God is with us.”