Feast of the Immaculate Conception

Dear Faithful,

“To the honor and glory of the Virgin from whom He was born,” says the papal bull, Ineffabilis Deus.  “God has loved her, and adorned her; has vested her with a splendid garment.”  Love feels the need of adorning and embellishing the object of its affection: in the case of Mary, He that loved was all-powerful.  The omnipotent Son would make His Virgin-Mother all beautiful.  He would make her worthy to mold His Sacred Humanity, Body and Soul into, “the Son of Man”. 

He would preserve her from the faintest breath or shadow of sin.  He endowed her with the fullest measure of grace which a creature can receive.

All this grace and spiritual beauty was hers, when in the humble house of Nazareth she awaited the coming of the Divine Child.  But all this beauty was interior, quite hidden from the eyes of the simple folk, who saw in her no more than the spouse of Joseph, the village carpenter.

These are the opening words of the papal bull, defining the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.  All the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity bear a part in the creation, the redemption, and the forming of Mary.  The more complete and sublime her redemption was, the greater was her holiness, and therefore the greater the glory she gave to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.  No creature ever stood in such unique, such intimate relation to each of the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity.

“The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee.  And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God” (Lk. 1: 35)

Human words, even our loftiest figures of speech, are too carnal and too gross to express adequately the mysterious relation that exists between Mary and the Father Almighty, Mary and the Word Incarnate, Mary and the Holy Ghost.  An old Latin hymn tried to express it as follows:

            Thee made the Father, who knows no beginning;

            On thee lay the shadow of the Father’s Only Son;

            Upon thee came the Holy Ghost;

            Thy whole being, O Mary, is related to God.

I wish you all a very happy feast of Immaculate conception.

Please note that we will renew the consecration of SSPX to the Immaculata after Solemn High Mass at the priory. I invite you all to be spiritually present at this solemn moment.

God bless,

In Christo,

Fr. Therasian Babu