In 1858, appearing to Saint Bernadette at Lourdes, Mary stated her name saying: I am the Immaculate Conception!
The beginning of Mary’s role in our redemption is her conception as the daughter of St Joachim and St. Anne. Conceived without original sin Mary received this special grace, a gift of the Holy Spirit. Mary was always in a perfect relationship with God to prepare her to be the mother of Jesus. The Catechism teaches that Mary is the masterwork of God, the perfect vessel, and the start of God bringing mankind into communion with Jesus.
St. Maximilian Kolbe had a special devotion to Mary and celebrated and encouraged consecration to her Immaculate Conception. As a Polish priest in German-occupied Poland, he volunteered to take the place of a man chosen to starve to death in the Auschwitz Nazi Concentration Camp. St. Maximillian said of Mary that she is the “vertex of love.”
Today, we look to Mary to teach us how to say yes to God’s will,
and we pray for the grace of the Holy Spirit
to help us bring the love of Jesus to others.
Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us,
Amen
And did you know:
1) The Church in the United States is under the patronage of the Immaculate Conception. For Mission Doctors Association, the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary also holds some additional importance.
2) It was on December 8th, 1938, that our founder, Msgr. Anthony Brouwers was ordained.
3) It was attending the Marian Congress in 1954 that marked the 100th anniversary of the declaration of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, held in Legos Nigeria, that led to Msgr. Brouwers to found first the Lay Mission-Helpers Association and then Mission Doctors Association in response to the needs he saw in Africa
4) Perhaps because of these, Msgr. Brouwers also dedicated the organizations to the Blessed Mother in the title of the Immaculate Conception
5) While the Church had debated this doctrine for many hundreds of years it was in 1854, Pope Pius IX proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception and stated: “The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin.’”
6) There are only two times that the Papal Infallibly has been spoken ‘from the chair of Peter’. This doctrine of the Immaculate Conception and the doctrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary to heaven was declared by Pope Pius XII in 1950