The Immaculate Conception
This miraculous feat that God accomplished in the human flesh of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a breakthrough event for the entire human race. It establishes an otherwise “inconceivable” excellence and changes the way we think, act, and hope! As Pope John Paul II wrote, “The marvelous work which the Creator achieved in Mary gives men and women the possibility to discover dimensions of their condition which before were not sufficiently perceived.”
For this reason, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception is a day of elation. St. Anselm notes that all things that are subject to the use of human beings now rejoice in Mary’s Immaculate Conception because, through her, “they are in some sense restored to their lost beauty and are endowed with inexpressible new grace.”
God deigned to work such an august miracle in St. Anne’s little girl in order to form her for her vocation as the Mother of God. St. Bede the Venerable (+735) observes, “No wonder that the Lord, when he was about to redeem the world, began his work with his Mother, so that she, through whom salvation would be put into place for all, would be the first to taste the fruit of salvation from her Child.”
—from the book Mysteries of the Virgin Mary: Living Our Lady's Graces,
by Fr. Peter John Cameron, OP
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