3 Million Birthday Gifts
Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow
I am never sure who enjoys a birthday gift the most – the giver or the receiver? It is, of course a wonderful thing to receive a birthday present, especially when it reveals to us how much we are loved by someone, but the act of giving such a gift also gives us great joy when we see the happiness it brings. Birthdays are both beautiful and important because they provide us with this opportunity to give thanks for the life of a person and to show them that we cherish them and love them.
For many centuries millions of people around the world have celebrated the birthday of the Virgin Mary on the 8th of September. This year, on this particular birthday, the Mary’s Meals family is excited to offer her an incredible gift, for on the same day, we celebrate the fact that now over 3 million children are eating Mary’s Meals each school day.
I am described as the founder of Mary’s Meals, but actually I believe it was her idea, and her love that inspired us in 2002 to begin this work of feeding children in school. Of course, back then, when we began serving meals to a few hundred schoolchildren in Malawi we could never have imagined how this work would grow all over the world. But we did know from the beginning that this work belongs to her.
So, we say Happy Birthday to you Blessed Mother! We love you, and we thank God for your life! And we offer you as a gift the 3 million children who eat your meals – every one of them created by God as unique and beautiful. We know that this work of Mary’s Meals was first of all your gift to us – your gift to the world through your presence in Medjugorje – but we offer it back to you now and celebrate with great joy this thing we are doing together. And we ask you to keep praying for us, that we might continue to look after the gift of Mary’s Meals and that through it many more children who are still suffering hunger today might be fed, and that in the doing of this work of love, we might always point to your Son, Jesus.
Happy Birthday, dear Mother, three million times over.