Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
“The Feast of the Immaculate Conception is in perfect harmony with the spirit of Advent; while the soul is preparing for the coming of the Redeemer, it is fitting to think of her, the all-pure one, who was His Mother. The very promise of a Savior was joined to, or rather, was included in the promise of this peerless Virgin. After having cursed the insidious serpent, God proclaimed; ‘I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head’ (Genesis 3:15)….in Mary Immaculate we see not only her preservation from original sin, and the complete absence of the slightest shadow of an imperfection, but we also see the positive side of this mystery which made her, from the very first moment of her existence, ‘full of grace.’ … St. John of the Cross … presents [Her] as prototype and model. ‘Such were those [works and prayers] of the most glorious Virgin Our Lady, who, being raised to this high estate of union from the beginning, never had the form of any creature imprinted in her soul, neither was she moved by such, but was invariably guided by the Holy Spirit’ (Ascent of Mt. Carmel 2, 10).”*
And so, we pray:
Father, you prepared the Virgin Mary to be the worthy mother of your Son. You let her share beforehand in the salvation Christ would bring by his death, and kept her sinless from the first moment of her conception. Help us by her prayers to live in your presence without sin. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.**
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*Divine Intimacy, Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D., 2010, Baronius Press, London.
**Prayer for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception from the Liturgy of the Hours.
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Art for this post on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary: Immaculate Conception, Peter Paul Rubens, circa 1628, PD-US author’s life plus 100 years or less, Wikimedia Commons.
