The Immaculate Conception

You are all beautiful, my beloved, and there is no blemish in you. 
Song of Solomon 4:7

Today is the Feast Day of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. On this day, we honor the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was conceived without sin. The Immaculate Conception means that the Blessed Virgin Mary was free from Original Sin from the very moment of her conception in the womb of her mother, Saint Anne.

We celebrate the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary on September 8; nine months before is December 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

Today is the Patronal Feast Day of the United States of America. May Our Lady bless our country and protect and guide us. Please pray for the protection and sanctity of all Life, especially for life in the womb, for the restoration of the sanctity of Marriage and for the protection of Religious Freedom in our beloved country.

Christ is the "new Adam". The Church Fathers, Saint Justin in 150AD and Saint Irenaeus 180AD, saw Mary as the "new Eve". She humbly obeyed God; Eve disobeyed. The Church Fathers also called Mary the "new ark of the covenant" and theotokos, God-bearer. From these titles came the doctrine of Mary's Immaculate Conception and her sinlessness unfolded. Saint Ephrem, the Syrian, in 373AD spoke of Mary as without stain or blemish, calling her "all pure, all immaculate, all stainless, all undefiled, all incorrupt, all inviolate." Saint Augustine left open the possibility of Mary's sinlessness, using language similar to the Catholic dogma of the Immaculate Conception.

Heavenly 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

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.