The Feast of the Immaculate Conception
"O' Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to Thee!"
Today we celebrate the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Today is the dawning of our salvation for the Mother of God is conceived. The long wait for the Messiah is drawing ever nigh with the conception of His Mother. Of the four Marian dogmas, the Immaculate Conception, the Divine Maternity, Perpetual Virginity and the Assumption, we honor Mary’s life and holiness today, that God has chosen Her from the creation of the world to be the Mother of His Son, the New Eve. Today is NOT the celebration of Christ's conception, that is the Feast of the Annunciation on March 25th and is referred to as the Virginal Conception of Christ. Although Jesus also was conceived without sin He is the sole person to be conceived of a virgin. We take time during this Advent season to recognize the great gift God gave us in the Blessed Virgin Mary and we desire to draw close to Her in order to draw closer to Jesus Christ.
Today's liturgical color is white or gold for Mary's spotless purity and holiness, laypeople customarily wear blue to honor Mary. The custom for today is to place Marian symbols around the Christ candle in the middle of the Advent wreath. A plenary indulgence can be gained under the usual conditions by visiting a church named for the Immaculate Conception and reciting the Apostle's Creed and the Our Father. Today is a Holy Day of Obligation which means Catholics are obliged to go to Mass. A Holy Day of Obligation holds the same solemnity of a Sunday. As the Immaculate Conception is patroness of the USA no matter what day this feast falls on, it is obligatory in the USA. If it falls on a Sunday the solemnity is moved to December 9th.
Today is a good day to watch films about Our Lady of Lourdes for it was during this apparition where Mary identified Herself as the Immaculate Conception.
On today’s feast in 2023 the Nativity Scene Indulgence begins.
A plenary indulgence is given for visiting a church on the feast of its titular Saint. Any church titled Immaculate Conception holds a plenary indulgence under the normal conditions (see indulgences section) and for praying the creed and Our Father once.For those consecrated to Mary on this feast in previous years and renew their consecration a plenary indulgence can be gained today. To make this renewal more efficacious see here. For members of the Rosary Confraternity and Living Rosary a plenary indulgence is gained under the usual conditions.
Another Mystical Vision (Book 1, Ch 6)
St. Maximilian and the Immaculate Conception
(Mary calls Herself thus to make all Catholics realize Her unique and
singular privilege, She doesn't say I am Immaculately conceived,
denoting an event, but Her privilege from God).
“Raise up your heads, then, ye children of Adam, and shake off your chains! This day the humiliation which weighed you down is annihilated. Behold! Mary, who is of the same flesh and blood as yourselves, has seen the torrent of sin, which swept along all the generations of mankind, flow back at her presence and not touch her: the infernal dragon has turned away his head, not daring to breathe his venom upon her; the dignity of your origin is given to her in all its primitive grandeur. This happy day, then, on which the original purity of your race is renewed, must be a feast to you. The second Eve is created; and from her own blood (which, with the exception of the element of sin, is the same as that which makes you to be the children of Adam), she is shortly to give you the God-Man, who proceeds from her according to the flesh, as He proceeds from the Father according to the eternal generation.” -The Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin by Dom Gueranger, O.S.B.
The Immaculate Conception:
God designing the Immaculate Conception:
The Proclamation of the Dogma:
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