Thoughts to live by: 2nd Week of Advent

Monday, 9 December, the 2nd Week of Advent

Some Notes on the Immaculate Conception:

1. We have just arrived at the Collegio Filippino after the 9:00 am thanksgiving Mass for the new Cardinals. It is 11:30am here. Surprise of surprises! The thanksgiving Mass presided by the Pope at St. Peter’s Basilica was the Mass of the Immaculate Conception, while everywhere else in the world the Mass today is the Mass of the 2nd Sunday of Advent. It was a beautiful Latin Mass with Gregorian music and Marian hymns.

2. This year, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is transferred to 9 December, because 8 December falls on the 2nd Sunday of Advent. The 2nd Sunday of Advent outranks the Solemnity. Ordinarily, today would be a holy day of obligation. But Rome granted the request of the CBCP not to oblige the faithful to attend Mass because, being a working day, it would be difficult for the people to fulfill the obligation to attend Mass.

The Immaculate Conception is one of the four Marian dogmas (along with the Divine Motherhood of Mary, her Perpetual Virginity, and the Assumption). Pope Pius IX in 1854 defined the Immaculate Conception as a dogma by the papal bull, “Ineffabilis Deus.” The papal bull reads: “We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God, and, therefore, to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.” The Council of Trent, held between 1545 and 1563, had previously affirmed that the Blessed Mother was free of all personal sin.

3. The Bible does not speak of the Immaculate Conception in a direct way. Many pointed to Lk. 1:28, “Hail, full of grace,” to say that Mary was always filled with grace and thus without sin. The early Church Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Cyril of Jerusalem, described Mary as the New Eve. While the old Eve, committed the original sin by her disobedience, Mary, the obedient New Eve, remained immaculate and incorrupt from original sin. She was as innocent as Eve before the Fall. Ambrose attributed Mary’s incorruptibility and virginity to grace and immunity from sin. So did John Damascene. By the 4th century, the idea that Mary was free from sin was generally more widespread, but the question remained whether she was also free from the sin passed down from Adam and Eve.

4. The Feast originated in the Eastern Church in the 7th century, reached England in the 11th, and from there it spread to Europe. Its official approval was extended to the whole Church in 1693. The word “immaculate” was not officially added to the name of the feast until 1854.

5. During the Middle Ages, debates ensued on the issue. Franciscans affirmed that it was possible that Mary was conceived without original sin in view of God’s omnipotence, and that it was also appropriate in view of her role as Mother of God: “Potuit, decuit, fecit.” “It was possible, it was fitting, therefore, it was done.” Thomas Aquinas and Bernard of Clairvaux objected that if Mary were free of original sin at her conception, then she would have no need of redemption, making Christ’s saving redemption superfluous. In response, Dons Scotus developed the idea of “preservative redemption,” a more perfect redemption, since “to have been preserved free from original sin was a greater grace than to be set free from sin.” The Council of Trent did not explicitly mention the Immaculate Conception but affirmed that Mary remained during all her life free from all stain of personal.

6. The development of the teaching on the Immaculate Conception was more the fruit of popular devotion. In the 16th and 17th centuries, devotion to the Immaculate was widespread in Spain, while in France in 1830 St. Catherine Laboure saw a vision of Mary standing on a globe. A voice commanded her to have a medal made in imitation of what he saw. The medal said, “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.” A cofirmation by Mary herself, that she was conceived without sin. Her vision marked the start of a 19th century Marian revival.

7. After consulting bishops, religious orders, and the laity on the possibility of definition, Pope Pius IX finally proclaimed the Immaculate Conception as a dogma of faith in 1854, the first dogma defined without an ecumenical council.

In 1858, the Blessed Mother appeared several times to Bernadette Soubirous in Lourdes, France and told her, “I am the Immaculate Conception.”

8. The 4th century Latin prayer, “Tota Pulchra es, Maria” has been put into music by various celebrated composers through the centuries. Its 1st words speak of the Immaculate Conception: “Tota pulchra es, Maria… et macula originalis non est in te.” “Thou art all fair, Mary. And the original stain is not in you.” The prayer concludes, “Pray for us, intercede for us with our Lord Jesus Christ.”

9. Prayer — Almighty ever-living God, you prepared a worthy dwelling place for your Son by the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin. Grant, we pray, that as you preserved her from every stain by virtue of the Death of your Son, which you foresaw, so, through her intercession, we, too, may be cleansed and admitted to your presence, through Christ our Lord. Amen. (Today’s Collect).

Prayers, best wishes, God bless!