Today the Church celebrates the Immaculate Conception, the moment Mary was conceived in the womb of St. Anne free from original sin — a unique grace given by God in view of her mission to become the Mother of Jesus, the very Wisdom of God. This feast does not refer to Jesus’ conception, but to Mary’s preservation from original sin from the first instant of her life, a truth proclaimed as dogma by Pope Pius IX in 1854. Its echoes, however, were already present in history — from Mary’s 1830 apparition to St. Catherine Labouré with the Miraculous Medal, to her 1858 revelation to St. Bernadette at Lourdes: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” On December 8, we celebrate God’s preparation of a pure Mother for His Son and ask Mary’s immaculate grace to inspire us always.
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