Happy Friday, friends! 💕

Way back in July, we talked about Saints Joachim and Anne — the quiet, faithful couple who raised Mary. This week, we finally get to celebrate the day their story truly began: Mary's own birthday.

There are only three birthdays the whole Church celebrates on her calendar — Jesus, Mary, and John the Baptist. Everyone else's feast day marks the day they died and entered heaven. But Mary's birth itself was so full of hope for the world that the Church wanted to celebrate the very beginning of her story, not just its end.

It's a lovely week to remember that every birth — including your own little one's — is the start of a story God is already writing.