The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
From “The St. Andrew Daily Missal” (1937)


 
    Having decided from all eternity to make Mary Mother of the Incarnate
Word (Epistle), God willed that she should crush the head of the serpent
from the moment of her conception. He covered her “with a  mantle of
holiness” (Introit) and, “preserving her soul from all stain, He made
her a worthy dwelling place for His Son” (Collect). The feast of the
“Conception” of the Virgin was, from the eighth century, celebrated in
the East on December 9th, from the ninth century in Ireland and May 3rd,
and in the eleventh century in England on December 8th. The Benedictines
with St. Anselm, and the Franciscans with Duns Scotus (1308) favoured the
feast of the “Immaculate Conception,” which in 1128 was kept in
Anglo-Saxon monasteries. In the fifteenth century Pope Sixtus IV, a
Franciscan, erected at the Vatican the Sistine Chapel in honour of the
Conception of the Virgin. And on December 8th, 1854, Pius IX officially
proclaimed this great dogma, making himself the mouthpiece of all the
Christian tradition summed up in the words of the Angel: “Hail Mary, full
of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women: (Gospel) “
Thou art all beautiful, O Mary, and the original stain is not in thee “
says in truth the alleluia verse. Like the dawn which announces the day,
Mary precedes the Sun of Justice which will soon illumine the world of
souls. Bringing to us her Son, it is she who first appears in the
liturgical cycle. Let us ask God “to heal us and to deliver us from all
our sins” (Secret, Postcommunion) in order that by the graces which
specially belong to the feast of the “Immaculate” we may become more
worthy of receiving Jesus in our hearts when He comes into them on December
25.