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“Come, then, and search out your sheep, not through your servants or hired men, but do it yourself. Lift me up bodily and in the flesh, which is fallen in Adam. Lift me up not from Sarah but from Mary, a virgin not only undefiled, but a virgin whom grace had made inviolate, free of every stain of sin”
- Saint Ambrose of Milan – Doctor of the Church, Commentary on Psalm, 118:22–30. 387 AD
(Feast of the Immaculate Conception in the Catholic Church today. This quote is an early reference to this belief in the power of God acting in human history to prepare Mary for her role as mother of the Messiah. Invite the Spirit to open your own heart to Christ this day.)
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- Feast of the Immaculate Conception
Gn 3:9-15, 20; Psalm 98:1, 2-3ab, 3cd-4; Eph 1:3-6, 11-12
Lk 1:26-38
The angel Gabriel was sent from God
to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,
to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph,
of the house of David,
and the virgin’s name was Mary.
And coming to her, he said,
“Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”
But she was greatly troubled at what was said
and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
Then the angel said to her,
“Do not be afraid, Mary,
for you have found favor with God.
Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,
and you shall name him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,
and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,
and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,
and of his Kingdom there will be no end.”
But Mary said to the angel,
“How can this be,
since I have no relations with a man?”
And the angel said to her in reply,
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
Therefore the child to be born
will be called holy, the Son of God.
And behold, Elizabeth, your relative,
has also conceived a son in her old age,
and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren;
for nothing will be impossible for God.”
Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word.”
Then the angel departed from her.
USCCB lectionary
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Reflection on the Scripture
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Mary, the new Eve, is also “a sign of sure hope” in traumatized times (Lumen Gentium, 68, Vatican II). She was without sin from the moment of her conception. She was undefeated, not by her power but because she let her Son’s victory be done unto her (Lk 1:38). She is a sign of hope for those hoping against hope, for “banished children of Eve,” crying and sighing “in this vale of tears” (Hail Holy Queen prayer). If you’re in
the vale of tears, the time of trouble, the hour of darkness — if you’re going through your own sorrows — Mary is the sign to hope even against hope.
Promise: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; hence, the holy Offspring to be born will be called Son of God.” —Lk 1:35
Presentation Ministries
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Meditation on the Immaculate Conception of Mary
- by St. Pio
The Eternal Father created her pure and immaculate and is well pleased in her for she is the worthy dwelling of His only Son. Through the generating of His Son in His bosom from all eternity, He forecasts the generation of His Son as Man in the pure womb of this mother, and He clothed her from her conception in the radiant snowy garment of grace and of most perfect sanctity; she participates in His
perfection.
The Son Who chose her for His Mother poured His wisdom into her that from the very beginning, by infused knowledge, she knew her God. She loved and served Him in the most perfect manner as He never until then had been loved and served on this earth.
The Holy Ghost poured His love into her; she was the only creature worthy or capable of receiving this love in unlimited measure because no other had sufficient purity to come so near to God; and being near to Him could know and love Him ever more. She was the only creature capable of containing the stream of love which poured into her from on high. She alone was worthy to return to Him from Whom came that love.
This very love prepared her for that “Fiat” which delivered the world from the tyranny of the infernal enemy and overshadowed her, the purest of doves, making her pregnant with the Son of God.
We too, redeemed by Holy Baptism, are corresponding to the grace of our vocation when in immitation of our Immaculate Mother we apply ourselves incessantly to the knowledge of God, in order that we may ever learn better to know Him, to serve Him and to love Him.
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