Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception
of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, the solemn dogma defined by Blessed Pope Pius IX in 1854.

Through the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary, "full of grace" through God, was redeemed from the moment of her conception. That is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception confesses, as Blessed Pope Pius IX proclaimed on December 8, 1854: "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, Saviour of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin." (Catechism of the Catholic Church).

The first reading from Genesis (3:9-15, 20) gives an account of the events following the fall and God’s words to the serpent “I will make you enemies of each other: you and the woman, your offspring and her offspring.  It will crush your head and you will strike at its heel.”

The second reading is the Canticle from Ephesians (1: 3-6, 11-12) which reminds us that it is in Christ “that we were claimed as God’s own, chosen from the beginning.”

The Gospel of Luke (1:26-38) gives us the account of the Annunciation and points out to us Mary’s total openness to God “I am the handmaid of the Lord, let what you have said be done to me.”