I AM THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION." Those words, uttered by the Mother of God herself to Saint Bernadette Soubirous in the Grotto of Massabielle near Lourdes, France, on March 25, 1858, was a Heavenly ratification of the solemn, infallible proclamation of the doctrine of her Immaculate Conception by Pope Pius IX on December 8, 1854, in the Bull Ineffabilis Deus.
"I AM THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION."
Our Lady was conceived in the womb of her holy mother, Good Saint Anne, without any stain of Original or Actual Sin in anticipation of the merits that would be won by her Divine Son, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, on the wood of the Holy Cross. She, the Singular Vessel of Devotion, had the perfect integrity of Adam and Eve before their Fall from Grace in the Garden of Eden.
It is important, therefore, to get the doctrine of Original Sin right in order to understand the great miracle worked by God in the soul of the fairest flower of our race, Our Lady, from the very first moment of her Immaculate Conception. To get anything about the doctrine of Original Sin wrong leads to the efforts on the part of Modernists to deconstruct the doctrinal definitions of Original Sin and of the Immaculate Conception.
Alas, the Catholic Church, our Holy Mother on earth, our Mater and Magister, is as spotless as the Immaculate Blessed Virgin Mary. Holy Mother Church does not deconstruct infallible dogmatic definitions. Holy Mother Church cannot do so, which is why we need to pray to Our Lady, she who is the Mediatrix of All Graces and our Immaculate Queen, to help us to make no concessions to the counterfeit church of conciliarism that has promulgated an abominable "liturgy" and whose officials feel feel to "reinterpret" dogmatic truths according to Modernist propositions that have been condemned by the authority of our spotless Mother on earth, Holy Mother Church.
Mindful of the effects of our own sins on our immortal souls and of our need to make reparation for them to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through Our Lady's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, may we make the Secret prayer for today's Holy Mass our own:
"Receive the saving Victim we offer to Thee, O Lord, on the solemn feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary: and grant that, as we confess that by Thy prevenient grace she was kept free from every stain of sin; so, by her intercession, we may be delivered from all our offenses. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God."
A number of prayers from The Raccolta in honor of Our Lady's Immacualte Conception can be found in Appendix A. Appendix B contains material on the Immacualte Conception as found in The New English Edition of The Mystical City of God.
O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
A blessed Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary to you all!
(An original commentary will be appear on Friday, December 9, 2022, or Saturday December 10, 2022.)