I must decrease...

Mary's birth is the dawn of redemption; her appearance casts a new light upon all mankind: a gift of innocence, of purity, and of grace, a harbinger of the great light that will flood the earth when Jesus, the "light of the world," appears.

Our Blessed Mother, preserved from sin and full of grace in view of the merits of Christ, not only announces the approach of redemption, but bears its first fruits within her, for she is the first to be redeemed by her divine Son. Her immaculate conception is the first flower, blossoming in anticipation of his paschal mystery - a flower which brings joy to the world and is most pleasing to Almighty God.

After the birth of Jesus no other birth was ever as important in God's eyes or as precious for the good of the human race as was Mary's. Yet her birth remains in shadow; no one registered it, Sacred Scripture says nothing about it. Her early years disappear into silence just as all the rest of her life does.

Mary's birth is an even whose magnitude is wrapped in deepest humility. The more any of us wish to grow in God's eyes, the more we must make ourselves small and humble, and hid ourselves both from our own eyes and those of others.

Divine Intimacy
Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, OCD