Feast of the Immaculate Conception

Picture courtesy of Catholic Digital Images

The following is from St. Michael Center of the Blessed Virgin Mary

On December 8, the Catholic church celebrates the Solemnity of Immaculate
Conception of Mary- the patronal feast of the United States. It is one of the
few Holy days of obligation on the Church calendar -- that is, all Catholics are
obligated to attend Mass on this day. As this feast occurs early in Advent, it
is a perfect time to consider Mary and her important role in the celebration of
Christmas.

The Immaculate Conception of Mary is a solemn dogma declared
by Pope Pius IX in 1854 which proclaimed that Mary was conceived free from the
stain of original sin. This privilege of Mary derives from God's having chosen
her as Mother of the Savior; thus she received the benefits of salvation in
Christ from the very moment of her conception. This great gift to Mary, an
ordinary human being just like us, was fitting because she was destined to be
Mother of God. The purity and holiness of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a model for
all Christians.

Prayer on the Immaculate Conception of Mary

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.

Bible Quote on the Immaculate Conception of Mary

And he came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord (is) with thee.
- Luke 1:28

Quotable Quote on the Immaculate Conception of Mary

"The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin.”
- Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus, 1854.

Also, be sure to read "Why the Immaculate Conception?" by by The Rev. Paul Mankowski, S.J. by clicking HERE Thank you Sue for sharing this with me!

"Pure. Whole. Intact. Entire. Spotless. Stainless. Sinless. unsoiled. Unsullied. Unblemished. Uncorrupted. Immaculate!"

The following is from this article:

I live in an age, and a country, wherein the largest singe cause of death of infants under one year of age is homicide. I live at a time when, according to those who claim to know these things, Ronald McDonald has surpassed Jesus Christ in popularity among children. I live at a time when the best known moral theologians have despaired of leading people to a more virtuous life, but are principally concerned to insulate the sinner from the consequences of his sin; logic has give way to latex as the preferred medium of instruction. I live in a country where, this very day, in the time between my rising and my standing here before you, 4,000 of our fellow citizens, 4,000 human beings with an eternal destiny, were summarily killed by abortion. I live at a time when most promises will be broken, most vows will be repudiated, most marriages will fail. I live at a time when it is virtually impossible to go through a day without using some commodity which, however innocent in itself, is not hawked in terms of some base or venal allure. I am promised prosperous and intriguing companions by the folks who brew my beer; and those who sell my shaving cream are at pains to assure me that it will provoke the women I encounter into sexual frenzy. (The last claim, I might add, is an exaggeration.)...

It may seem pointless at such a time, in such a place, to hold up the Virgin Mary, and especially her Immaculate Conception, as a source of nourishment for our lives as Christians. For her perfection can appear so remote from the moral sweatiness and squalor in which our personal struggles occur that it recedes entirely into the background; it is swallowed up by our furious temptations and enthusiasms, and so is lost to us. This remoteness is widened, and not helped, by a way of speaking which would present the Virgin Mary to us as "the representation of an Ideal", that is, as an abstraction, or at best a personified Virtue, like the Roman goddesses of Wisdom or Moderation. Thus, she, who begins as a real flesh-and-blood woman, "a virgin, betrothed to a man named Joseph", as today's Gospel has it, becomes an the end an abstract noun, a figure of speech.