December 8 – The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Solemnity)

Antiphons at Lauds - Psalms of Sunday of the 1st week

1. A pure and wondrous mother who being immaculate, merited to bring forth God into the world.

2. Blessed are you, Virgin Mary, by the Lord God on High, more than any other woman on earth.

3. Draw us toward you, immaculate Daughter, let us run together; your perfumes have an asounding odour.

Isaiah 43, 1

Thus says the Lord, who created you, Jacob, who also formed you, Israel: "Do not fear, for I have redeemed you, I have called you by name, you are mine."

Brethren, as it was by one man that sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned: (for until the law, sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law): nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the manner of Adam’s transgression, who is the prefigures him that was to come.

But the free gift is not the same as the offence: for if through the offence of one many be dead, much more now by the grace of God and the gift awarded by the grace of one man, Jesus Christ, has abounded on many.

And the gift is not as if it were the fruit of the one who sinned: for the judgment for one transgression led to condemnation, but the free gift awarded after a multitude of offences leads to justification.

For if by one man’s offence death, reigned because of what he had done, the more so those who receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, who is Jesus Christ.

Therefore as by the offence of one alone, judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift of the justification of life came upon all men.

For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound; but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.

So that as sin has reigned through death, even so might grace reign through righteousness to eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

Having decided from all eternity to make Mary the Mother of the Incarnate Word, 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 and, preserving her soul from all stain, He made her a worthy dwelling place for His Son.

The feast of the Conception of the Virgin was from the 8^th century celebrated in the East on the 9^th December, from tbe 9^th century in Ireland on the 3^rd May and in the 11^th century in England on the 8^th December. The Benedictines with St. Anselm, and the Franciscans with Duns Scotus, favoured the feast of the "Immaculate Conception," which in 1128 was kept in Anglo-Saxon monasteries. In the 15^th century Sixtus IV, a Franciscan Pope, erected the Sixtine Chapel at the Vatican in honour of the Conception of the Virgin.

On the 8^th December, 1854 Pius IX officially proclaimed this great dogma, making himself the mouthpiece of all the Christian tradition summed up in the words of Gabriel: "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed are you among women".

Like the dawn which announces the day, Mary precedes the Son of Justice who will soon enlighten the world of souls. Bringing to us her Son, it is she who first appears in the liturgical cycle in which we ask God to deliver us from all our sins in order that by the graces which specially belong to the feast of the Immaculate, we may become more worthy of receiving Jesus when He comes on Christmas day.

The ancients said that white was a divine colour: Daniel depicts God as appearing clothed in white and at the Transfiguration the garments of Jesus were of dazzling whiteness. The liturgy of the feast of the Immaculation Conception applies this text to the Virgin saying that the garment with which God has clothed her is a vesture as white as snow. For this reason, we ask with the Church the Blessed Virgin that we may by her intercession be purified from all our sins that we may be in readiness to receive Jesus in Christmas.

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