To My Boys: September 8, 2020
Good morning!
Hope you guys had a restful and safe weekend. Nothing like a long weekend to recharge the batteries and build up the strength to get back to work. I was thinking yesterday, I believe Labor Day is the only holiday that you actually don’t do what you celebrate. On Thanksgiving Day you give thanks, on Memorial Day you remember, but on Labor Day you don’t labor.
Today is also a holiday. We celebrate a birthday. Actually, one of the most important birthdays of the year. September 8th is the celebration of the birth of Mary. I know we don’t think of it that much because we are hyper-focused on the birthday of Jesus on December 25th, but she also had one and today is it.
What a glorious day it must have been. The mother of God was brought into the world and the plan for our salvation took another very significant step. If it is true what the prophet Jeremiah said, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you” (1:5), then Mary, from the time she was conceived in the womb of her mother Anne, was dedicated to God for the purpose of fulfilling, not a very important role, but one of the most important roles in human history.
How can we not celebrate every aspect of that woman’s life? How can we not hold her in such great esteem and offer her our thanksgiving and lavish her with our praises? I remember the words of St. Maximilian Kobe, the Auschwitz martyr, who said, “Never be afraid of loving the Blessed Mother too much, you can never love her more than Jesus did.” She holds a special place in the life of Belen Jesuit and rightfully so.
One more thing, today also is the feast of Our Lady Queen of Charity, patroness of Cuba. You may have seen this image before. Mary holds her son Jesus in her arms and at her feet are three fishermen in a little boat. It is one of the most recognized images for Cubans. We have an image of her in the library right in front of the Cuban Collection. It is a reminder to us that Cuba is where it all started for us.
Usually, this day is celebrated with great fanfare in Miami with a huge mass. For obvious reasons, it will not this year. The mass was first celebrated at Marine Stadium in Key Biscayne, then Bicentennial Park, then The American Airlines Arena, then The Watsco Center at the University of Miami. As you can see the Blessed Mother gets around. Now you know why she keeps the boat and three rowers at her feet.
Even though we may not have the big mass this year to honor the Blessed Mother on her birthday today, never forget you can honor her yourself. Don’t simply pray a Hail Mary today. Instead, get the whole family together and pray the rosary. Offer her that gift today. She deserves it and nothing will make her happier.
Keep battling like a Wolverine.
Auspice Maria
BELEN JESUIT PREPARATORY SCHOOL
500 SW 127th Avenue, Miami, FL 33184
phone: 305.223.8600 | fax: 305.227.2565 | email: communications@belenjesuit.org
500 SW 127th Avenue, Miami, FL 33184
phone: 305.223.8600 | fax: 305.227.2565 | email: communications@belenjesuit.org
Belen Jesuit Preparatory School was founded in 1854 in Havana, Cuba, by Queen Isabel II of Spain. The task of educating students was assigned to the priests and brothers of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), whose teaching tradition is synonymous with academic excellence and spiritual discipline. In 1961, the new political regime of Cuba confiscated the school's property and expelled the Jesuit faculty. The School was re-established in Miami the same year, and over the next decade, continued to grow. Today, Belen Jesuit is situated on a 34-acre site in western Dade County, just minutes away from downtown Miami.