The recurrence of a festival of the blessed Mother of our Lord should make us observe how little value we should attach to worldly grandeur and distinctions. Mary was descended from a long line of kings, many of them potent, wealthy, and of great note in their day; but she was espoused to a working man, a carpenter, earning his and her food by daily labour; too poor to secure for her a lodging in the inn of Bethlehem, so that when she brought forth her divine Son, she laid him in a manger of a stable, where were the ox and the ass. So passes away the fashion of this world; so little connection with earthly dignity has the grace of adoption and of the Sonship of God. Happy are we if learning, in whatever way God teaches us, and in whatever state of life, that His presence with us, and in us, is our truest honour; that to have that relationship to Christ, and His blessed Mother, which the Holy Spirit gives, is a dignity as much above that of any worldly distinction as it is more inconceivably lasting. Earthly distinctions are but for the brief day of this life, but the sons and daughters of God in whom His Spirit dwells shall inherit eternal life. It is true wisdom to keep this in daily mind; and our Lord's words, I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish.
- text taken from Daily Bread - Bring a Few Morning Meditations for the Use of Catholic Christians by Father Richard Waldo Sibthorp