Feast of the Immaculate Conception December 8, 2023

Father Rick’s Two-Minute Homily for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception
December 8, 2023, Luke 1:26-38
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/120823.cfm

LIFE WITHOUT SIN – WOW!

I love Mother Mary.

Not only is she someone we can look up to, but she’s also there every moment of our lives to help us walk in the way of her Divine Son.

The first thing we know from the earliest times of our Catholic Church is Mary’s holiness. These earliest disciples of Jesus in the first 400 years had not formulated that Jesus had a human nature and a divine nature in one Person. The Church declared this dogma of our faith in the Council of Chalcedon in 451 A.D.

Before that time, our earliest fathers and mothers of the Church held great importance on Mary’s holiness to explain our Lord’s full humanity. By necessity, she was the purest and holiest of human beings chosen by God to give birth to God’s holy Word.
This teaching is part of our Sacred Tradition in the Church. We did not invent this, but it was revealed by God through the Angel Gabriel when he addressed Mother Mary:

“Hail full of grace! The Lord is with you.”

Through the angel, God stated that Mary, our Mother, is “full of grace” and was from the moment of her conception.
Immaculate Conception means that she never had any sin on her soul. She was able to respond fully with an eager yes under the worst conditions possible: think of the shock – she was not married – the child was not conceived by her betrothed, Joseph.

When God gives us the fullness of his grace, it’s incredible what our “yes” can do.

Let us pray, “Lord, have mercy that none of our sins and keep you from accomplishing all you wish in our lives for the good and salvation of others.”

Gospel Challenge:
God the Father could have given us His Divine Son without Mary, but He did not. He had such regard and respect for Mary’s freedom that He first asked her permission.
He does the same with us.

Love Your Neighbor
Please join me in praying for all baptized Catholics to be faithful to Jesus in the Holy Mass every weekend. Hail Mary, full of grace…
Peace be with you.

Fr. Rick Pilger, I.C.
pastor

or .