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The Immaculate Conception of Bearer Mary Agreed to the Blessed Virgin Mary

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The Immaculate Conception of Bearer Mary Agreed to the Blessed Virgin Mary Connecting Catechesis and Life WHAT THE CHURCH BELIEVES BY PRAYING THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION This prayer is packed with words OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY and phrases that give us clues to what the Church has come to believe about this by Eliot Kapitan woman and this Solemnity. All of us know good people who live Mary was kept seemingly blameless lives and do what God sinless from the first asks of them. We look up to them with moment of her respect, with admiration, and even with conception. She was love. favored with God’s grace. More than any Mary, the blessed, the virgin, is, in other human, she was fact, a blameless one. She bears many and is “full of grace,” full titles and honors of respect. She is the of God’s very life and first Saint. We call her the Holy Mother of presence, full of God’s God (and celebrate this on 01 January, holiness. Solemnity and Holyday of Obligation). She is the daughter of Joachim and Anne (26 This favor, this July, Memorial). She is the believer of freely-given grace was in God’s good news for her and she said yes preparation for Mary to to it (Annunciation of the Lord, 25 March, respond to God’s action. Solemnity). This enabled her to do God’s will and become HOW THE CHURCH PRAYS the mother of the world’s redeemer. Catholics gather for Mass on December 8 each year to celebrate the Since this God- Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of bearer Mary agreed to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Under this title, be part of God’s plan, she is the principle patron for the United she is a model, a pattern States of America and is the name for of holiness for us. many cathedrals and churches. This day is Because of her, we can one of six holydays of obligation for boldly ask God to trace Catholics in dioceses of this country. in our actions and in our hearts On this solemnity we pray: what was traced in hers. We can pray: (a) O God, give us your grace and life too, (b) engage who by the Immaculate Conception of us fully in your service, and (c) help us the Blessed Virgin eagerly to know and thus do your will. prepared a worthy dwelling for your Son, grant we pray, All of this – grace, God-bearer, that, as you preserved her from every model of holiness – is to help bring on the stain fullness of creation, the fullness of the by virtue of the Death of Your Son, which reign of God, the fullness of salvation you foresaw, through Jesus Christ the Lord. so, through her intercession, we too, may be cleansed and admitted to your presence. Art, Steve Erspamer, © 1994, Archdiocese of Chicago. The Roman Missal, © 2010, ICEL. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission. This article first appeared in Liturgical Catechesis magazine, December 2002-Janaury 2003 [5:6], pages 20-21. © 2012, 2004, 2003, Eliot Kapitan. The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary – page 2 WHAT THE CHURCH LEARNS BY BELIEVING RESOURCES FOR FURTHER STUDY Early on, the Church believed the Some Scripture: The Lectionary for following about Mary: Mass, no. 689, provides Bible texts for our She is chosen by God to be the mother hearing on this Solemnity. Genesis 3:9-15, of God. 20 tells the part of the story of Adam and Eve. It sets us up for the new Eve, the new She is the first disciple, a holy follower of the Lord. mother of all the living. Psalm 98 helps us sing a new song to the Lord. It is the same She is the first Saint. She is the first chosen child of the new covenant, the text on which “Joy to the World” is based redemption found in the dead and risen that we sing in Christmas Time. Ephesians Christ Jesus. 1:3-6,11-12 reminds us that God chose all of us to be adopted children even before She is the model for and an image of the holiness of the Church. the birth of the Christ. Surely, then, God could desire the Mother of God to be born She stands in the shadow of God and Christ. Prayer is ultimately always without sin. Luke 1:26-38 recounts the address to God. Devotions and visit by the Angel Gabriel and the religious practices lead us to God or conversation about grace, fear, a question, they lead us in the wrong direction. and an answer. It took the Church centuries of Some Church documents: Vatican praying and discussing and thinking, Council II, in the Dogmatic Constitution on however, to agree on a formal statement the Church, art. 52,69, lays out in Chapter of belief on Mary’s conception. The great VIII the role of Mary in the mystery of debate was whether or not the mother of Christ and the Church. In part one on the God must or ever could be sinless. profession of faith, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 490-493, gives a clear In 1477, Pope Sixtus IV allowed, summary of the Church’s belief concerning without commanding, the Immaculate the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Conception to be celebrated in the whole Virgin Mary. Church. Pope Clement XI (1700-1721) placed the feast in the Roman Calendar and Some music: Certainly “Immaculate called for it to be celebrated everywhere Mary”, the Lourdes Hymn, is the first song on December 8. Only in 1854, did Pope to come to mind. Many know one or two Pius IX define the Immaculate Conception verses by heart. Other songs to sing this as dogma and named the Solemnity a day are settings of Psalm 98, “A Message universal Holyday of Obligation. Came to a Maiden Young” (Percy Dearmer and David McK. Williams), “The God Whom In our own country, Mary, the Earth and Sea and Sky” (Venantius Immaculate Conception was named the Fortunatus and John H. Shein), and “O Holy principal patron for the dioceses of the Mary” (Owen Alstott). If you want to try United States in 1846. Gregorian Chant, the traditional Marian antiphon for this season is “Alma Mary has an important role to play Redemptoris Mater.” Perhaps the music in our lives and in the life of the Church. director and pastor can help you learn it. Her conception reminds us that grace is always stronger than sin, that God has great desires for each one of us, and that ______________________ all human life leads ultimately to God Eliot Kapitan is the director for the Office for Worship and through Jesus Christ. the Catechumenate in the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois. .
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