| December 8 - Immaculate Conception "Father You prepared the
Virgin Mary to be the worthy mother of Your Son. You let her share
beforehand in the salvation Christ would bring by His death, and kept
her sinless from the first moment of her conception. Help us by her
prayers to live in Your presence without sin" (Collect).
i. Near the cell of St. Francis of Assisi a locust had set up
a home on a fig tree. One day Holy Father Francis lovingly called out to
the bug to come near. It came immediately and sat upon his hand. Francis
said to the bug
Sing, my sister Locust, and praise the Lord with jubilation Who has
created you. Obediently the bug began to sing and it continued as
long as the saint joined his song with hers. And then, after a duet of
sorts, Francis told the locust to return to its home. Gratitude towards
the Most High
thanksgiving to the God Who saves us
this was a constant theme of St. Francis' life. There was also the time
that St. Francis preached a powerful homily to a flock of birds. My
sister birds, he said, you owe God much gratitude, and ought always and
everywhere to praise and exalt Him. Francis then went on to give the
birds reasons for gratitude
you can fly
you have beautiful feathers
you sow not and neither do you reap but God feeds you and gives you
rivers and springs to drink from
finally, He gives you trees and to build your nests in. The Holy Friar
then warned the birds, Watch therefore well, my sister birds, that you
are not ungrateful, but busy yourselves always in praising God. But
after this powerful sermon, all those little birds began to open their
beaks, to beat their wings, and to stretch out their necks. And then in
an act of thanksgiving and adoration, the birds bowed their heads
reverently to the earth.
ii. But the greatest song of thanksgiving ever sung was that of
Our Lady. Her Magnificat
My Soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord... is a hymn of such
appreciation for the Almighty Who did such great things for her. Mother
Marie of St. Clare, the foundress of the P.C.P.A.s, pondered the mystery
of the Visitation when Christ Jesus resided in the womb of Mary, His
Mother: Jesus is still In the womb of His Mother and He cannot
express what is hidden in His soul
stated Mother Marie of St. Clare
And so He whispers it to His Holy Mother and it passes through her
heart to her virginal lips
Mary sings of her blessings, and she, first of all, begins the songs of
thanksgiving. Today in the Holy Liturgy we remember the Immaculate
Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
a
mystery of grace that preserved her from any stain of Original Sin when
she was conceived in the womb of her mother, St. Anne. And Mary does not
fail to give thanks for this singular privilege of grace and mercy.
iii. Proofs regarding this belief can be found in Holy
Scripture
Genesis 3:15, the Protoevangelium
the first seed of the Gospel, for example, states that God will
establish enmity
an enemy relationship between a woman to come and the serpent
between Mary and Satan. But if Mary were conceived in Original Sin, then
there would not be a relationship of enmity present
for if she were without grace she would be in Satan's camp. No, it would
not be right that she who was to crush and conquer
Satan would first be crushed by him. A prophecy pointing to our Lady in
the Song of Songs states the following about the fair bride of the
Divine Bridegroom: You are all beautiful my love, and there is no
blemish in you. And certainly we can cite St. Luke's Holy Gospel
where Mary is spoken of as being gratia plena
full of grace. True fullness of grace would be lacking if she came
into this world in sin. The Fathers of the Church
those great teachers of the early centuries
affirm the tradition of the Immaculate Conception. One father writes:
He who formed the first virgin Eve without deformity, also made the
second one without spot or sin. Another writes: Mary was not
infected by the venomous breath of the serpent. And in a beautiful
hymn by the deacon, St. Ephrem, the Harp of the Holy Ghost, it states:
You alone O Jesus and Your Mother are more beautiful than any others
for there is no blemish in You, nor any stains upon Your mother. And
the saints, too, would call her the highest honor of our race ... the
lily among thorns ... an offshoot of grace not wrath ... fallen man's
singular boast... a never fading wood that the worm of sin never
corrupted.
iv. But perhaps the most powerful proofs of the Immaculate
Conception of Mary are based upon common sense. Archbishop Fulton Sheen
pointed to the fact that if one could make his own mother, wouldn't he
make her perfect, wouldn't he love her so much that he would protect her
from any harm, from any fall, from any blemish? Well, the Son of God did
create His own mother. And of course, the common sense argument used by
Blessed John Duns Scotus
a
son of St. Francis
a
member of that Franciscan Family who are the greatest defenders of our
Lady's singular privilege. Scotus stated
Potuit, decuit, ergo fecit...roughly translated
God could do it
He should do it
and by golly God did do it. Blessed John Duns Scotus, the Subtle Doctor,
provided that key term to explain the teaching, namely PRESERVED. Our
Lady was saved by God in an extraordinary way for she was preserved from
any stain of sin. Whereas we are picked up after the fall and cleansed,
Mary was prevented from falling and thus was stainless. Mary gives
thanks all the more for she is more indebted to her Savior.
v. And all of this led to an event that occurred 150 years ago
today. Blessed Pius IX, surrounded by the spiritual sons of St. Francis
of Assisi, exercised the charism of infallibility in an extraordinary
way, proclaiming as the successor of St. Peter the following: We
define that the doctrine which holds that the Blessed Virgin Mary, at
the first instant of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace
of the Omnipotent God, in consideration of the merits of Jesus Christ,
the Savior of mankind, was preserved free from all stain of original
sin. But while all the cardinals, prelates, and dignitaries were
gathered in Rome, another event was happening in Paris, France. On
December 8, 1854, Sister Marie of St. Clare, foundress of the P.C.P.A.s
solemnly consecrated herself, together with her religious daughters,
both present and future. And she decreed that all should bear the name
of the Virgin.
vi. And what is the member of this congregation to do with her
life? Mother Marie of St. Clare clearly states: We are victims of
thanksgiving. At that kneeler in the cloister or in one of these
pews, the Poor Clare Nun of Perpetual Adoration is entrusted with the
great service of thanksgiving. As the foundress put it: His
Eucharistic Love should be honored, praised, and thanked through
perpetual thanksgiving. Jesus is present in the Most Blessed
Sacrament. But in His hiddenness, in His littleness, in His infinite
condescension in the Sacred Host, He cannot express Himself. And so He
whispers words of praise and thanksgiving into the hearts of these nuns
and it rises to their lips and they continue to sing that song of
thanksgiving begun by our Lady
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.
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