This week, we celebrate on Wednesday, the great Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We celebrate the Immaculate Conception on December 8th each year & then we celebrate Mary’s birthday on September 8th of the following year, 9 months to the day since we celebrated her conception. It’s the same with Jesus, we celebrate the Annunciation on March 25th & then 9 months later, on December 25th, we celebrate his birth at Christmas. Just an interesting way that the liturgical calendar is sketched out.

  The Immaculate Conception of Mary, a reality that was defined as a dogma of the Church in 1854 by Pope Pius IX. As early as the 7th century, the day was celebrated as the “Conception of Mary by Saint Anne” & was changed to the “Immaculate Conception” with Pius IX’s declaration. When the time came for God to send His Word, His only Son into the world, He needed a worthy vessel in which His Son would become flesh. While so many had been scared & stained by sin, God preserved Mary from her very beginnings from any & every stain of sin so that she would be worthy of the task of bearing the Son of God.

   You & I might not be immaculate, I certainly know that I’m not, but what we celebrate is not an unattainable reality. We may not be preserved of the stain of sin, we may fall short at times, we may struggle with human weaknesses, faults, & failings, but like Mary, we too can cooperate with & open ourselves to God’s grace. We may fall short of the ideal & when we do, God reaches out His hand to us to help us get back up. God’s invitation is not to despair, but to hope. Hope that, like He did through Mary, God can do great things even through us weak, sinful human beings if we strive to say yes to His invitation to life. Holy Mary, pray for us sinners, now & at the hour of our death!

  Have a blessed week!