on the eighth day of the first month of the year we celebrate the nativity of the blessed virgin mary, the theotokos.the collect for this day is rich:
"we beseech thee, o lord, to bestow on us thy servants the gift of thy heavenly grace: that as the child-bearing of the blessed virgin was to us the beginning of salvation; so the devout observance of her nativity may avail for the increasing of our peace. through jesus christ thy son, our lord: who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the holy ghost, ever one god, world without end. amen.
of course it makes sense to pray for the gift of grace on a feast of the one who is full of grace. and the collect recognizes that the beginning of our salvation is the incarnation of our lord. but the next part has more references than we might immediately recognize. in part the petition for peace is an allusion the prophet ezekiel's description of the temple with the closed gate, which is a source of much of our imagery regarding the theotokos. but it is also a reminder of the role the blessed virgin plays in the whole church. she is, as the one who both hears and does the word, as the one who bears the christ, the model for the whole church. (think of her central place in the icon of pentecost.)
and so it is for the peace of the church that we pray in this final petition of the collect. what we do not have, we cannot share.
a footnote to this feast and the peace of the church is provided by the association for the promotion of the reunion of christendom, a short-lived organization which urged the church to pray for peace during the octave of the feast.
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