Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.
Today's saint, St. Gregory the Great, was born in Rome around the year 540. In the year 574, he left the world to become a monk, and he became the abbot of his monastery in Rome. Then he became pope in 590 and died in 604.
St. Gregory the Great was great for many reasons. One of the reasons was his teaching. He's one of the great Latin Doctors of the Church. Within his body of teaching, his Mariology was particularly robust. And like all the Fathers and Doctors, especially the early ones, Mariology for him is a safeguard of Christology. A proper Mariology gives us a proper Christology. A proper understanding of who Our Lady is gives us a proper understanding of who Jesus, Her Son, is.
Within his teaching, I'd like to focus just on one point and share that with you, and it might seem so obvious that you might ask yourself, well, what's the point of even bringing it up? But then I'll try to explain that. And I think, in the end, you'll agree that it was really worth pointing out. It was really worth it, I hope. That's my goal.
So St. Gregory, and this is the point that you might think, well, it's so obvious, but St. Gregory emphatically taught that Our Lady was a perpetual virgin before, after, and during the birth of Our Lord. That is the Catholic doctrine. Our Lady is a virgin in the conception of Our Lord. After giving birth to Our Lord, She remains a virgin, and in the act of giving birth to Our Lord, She maintains Her virginity. And this is a safeguard of Our Lord's divinity, a sign that it's the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah, a sign that the Mother and the Son are two unique persons, a sign that the event itself is something special, unique, and divine.
St. Gregory the Great was, of course, not the first, not the last, not the only one to teach this. After him, St. Martin I in 649 taught it dogmatically. And even before them, it was clearly taught. Ever after them, from 649 all the way down to Vatican II, it's clear, undeniable, unquestionable Catholic doctrine. Lumen Gentium says, at the birth, at the moment of birth, Our Lord did not diminish His Mother's virginal integrity but sanctified it.
And really, to emphasize this point as much as Gregory does, if we read the very interesting preparatory documents for Vatican II, when you see the discussions of the theologians, the mind of the Church in preparing the documents, we read two interesting things. The preparatory draft points out that this doctrine, that Our Lord did not diminish Our Lady's integrity, bodily integrity, at the birth, at His birth, is commonly taught to be held by fide divina et catholica. So it's divinely revealed, must be assented to with supernatural faith. 
And then even more specifically, again, the mind of the Church, the intention of the words, the meaning of this doctrine, this preparatory draft says, the recent sentence—and now we're getting, I'm going to give you a hint, okay, why am I emphasizing this so much? It's so obvious. Because already in 1960, the Church was responding to some errors. It says the recent sentence of injury to the body of the Blessed Virgin in the birth, according to biological laws, is rejected as a sentence opposed to the traditional dogma of her perfect virginity, which does not rest in the laws of nature, but on the power of God.
And then made even more clear by St. JP II, in his Catechesis on the Creed, what does the term virgin mean? Well, it's so obvious. Well, theologians sometimes get obvious things very wrong. Virgin means, retains its customary meaning, the voluntary abstention from sexual acts and the preservation of bodily integrity. And because there was no harm to bodily integrity, there was no pain, obvious, but also taught explicitly by the Church. Alexander III, for example, in a letter explaining the faith to a Muslim sultan who wanted to convert, explicitly states it was a painless birth. The Roman Catechism, the Council of Trent teaches that as well, and the Fathers teach it, and the Saints, and the Doctors.
So why such an obvious—why state something so obvious with such emphasis? Because though the Catholic Magisterium is so clear on this, there is a growing body of opposing magisterium, the movie magisterium. And I say this because, well, you know, probably you watch movies, and movies are powerful. Images are powerful. Movies can be more powerful than popes, and councils, and the Gospel itself. 
I don't want to lose friends here, so I won't say any names of shows or movies, but proof of that is a recent multi-part series about Jesus and the apostles He chooses, more powerful than popes, more powerful than the councils, more powerful than the Gospel itself. Because it speaks through images that invoke powerful emotions, and powerful images and powerful emotions make us forget the truth. Just think to yourself, wouldn't you rather watch an episode of that series rather than hear me preach? Wouldn't that just be so much more enjoyable? That's just the way it works. 
So it's important to be on our guard against that because there's a growing body of opposing magisterium, movie after movie, not just that one. But big movie after big movie, one after another, we get the birth of Our Lord wrong, and very wrong. Portraying Our Lord's birth not only as painful but this multi-part series that I just mentioned has the lack of good sense to even portray it as a bloody birth.
So I would ask you, please don't follow the movie magisterium. It's powerful, I know, it's more pleasant to listen to, but it's wrong, and it's wrong on a big point. The birth of Our Lord was painless and virginal because it was the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah and of all the prophecies of the Old Testament. And it tells us something about Our Lord and Our Lady, and if we get that wrong, we get something wrong about Our Lord and Our Lady. 
So these errors are not without consequence. The birth of Our Lord, as St. Gregory teaches and Catholic doctrine teaches, was painless. Hopefully, the next big movie that tries will actually get it right.
Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.