Immaculate Conception, Filippo Parodi, 1660s

SHE IS one of only two women in history conceived without sin. The other is Eve.

She is the Immaculata, patroness of the United States, the Mother of humankind, the Queen of Heaven.

She reigns with humility, tenderness and compassion. God willed from the beginning of time and the moment of her conception that she would crush the head of the serpent, the cause of Eve’s downfall and the source of all evil. We honor and praise her Immaculate Conception today. May she help us through her intercessions to love our enemies, deliver us from our faults and embolden us in battle:

Thou art the ark of salvation; the one creature unwrecked in the universal deluge; the white fleece filled with the dew of heaven, whilst the earth around is parched; the flame which the many waters could not quench; the lily blooming amidst thorns; the garden shut against the infernal serpent; the fountain sealed, whose limpid water was never ruffled; the house of the Lord, whereon His eyes were ever fixed, and into which nothing defiled could ever enter; the mystic city, of which such glorious things are said. We delight in telling all thy glorious titles, O Mary! for thou art our Mother, and we love thee, and the Mother’s glory is the glory of her children. Cease not to bless and protect all those that honour thy immense privilege, O thou who wert conceived on this day! May this feast fit us for that mystery, for which thy Conception, thy Birth, and thy Annunciation, are all preparations—the Birth of thy Jesus in Bethlehem: yea, dear Mother, we desire thy Jesus, give Him to us and satisfy the longings of our love.

— Dom Gueranger, O.S.B.

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