“Merciful Father, as you have sent the Holy Spirit on Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, to write all that You wished and wanted, we pray You, send the same Holy Spirit on us, so that we may understand, appreciate Your Word, and make it our plan of life. This we ask for the merits of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.”
50 … The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
What joy, what consolation to know that in this, our world, full of corruption, sins, wickedness and crime, there lived once a person, a human being like us who was completely free of corruption , who was conceived without a trace of sin, spotless, immaculate.
Immaculate, fom the Latin; im for in which means not, and macula which means spot, we get the word, imma culate meaning without spot, without sin. This refers to the Blessed Virgin, Mary, who, from the very first moment of conception, she was excluded from the stain of Original sin. God had applied, beforehand, the merits of her Son, Jesus Christ.
We have a biblical support, proof for this Truth. The Catholic Church, “guided by the Holy Spirit for the complete Truth” (John, 16, 13), finds in the boundless wealth of the Word of God the truth about the UImmaculate Conception…and all the Truth of our Faith, in the Old Testament, in the New testament and in her living Tradition.
We have to explain the word Tradition, which means the Oral transmission, that is by word of mouth of the Divine Revelation. Whilst Holy Scripture is the written part of the same Divine Revelation.
Let us find the reference in the Old testament.
God said to to the serpent:
“And I will put enmity between you and the WOMAN, and between your offspring and he will crush] your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Gen, 3, 15)
This text is a prophetic announcement of Jesus and His Mother Mary, fighting together the harsh battle against Satan. This hostility between Mary and Satan, is of unique importance as it was expressly established by God Himself.
Now, for Mary to be able to vanquish, to defeat Satan and his offspring or followers, she had to be free from any power, from any shade of sin; she could not have had the slightest stain, that is why I said shadow of sin. And this had to start from her very instant, very first second, of her existence
In other words, Satan, overcome by the Son of God (Gen.3,15) could not stain Mary with the Original Sin, because she was already one with God in their fight, struggle against him, and Satan was the vanquished, the conquered, whilst Mary with her Son, were the Victors. /51
Information taken, with kind permission, from the book “Who is Mary” by H.G.Mons. Sylvester Magro ofm, Bishop of Benghazi. A very dear friend.
I would like to Dedicate these lines, written by my Spiritual Guide, Fulton J.Sheen to our Beloved Mother, Mary Immaculate on Her Feast day.
To the Woman I love
The Woman, who even God dreamed of Before the world was made;
The Woman of Whom I was born
At cost of pain and labour at a Cross.
The Woman Who, though no priest, Could yet on Calvary Hill breathe,
“This is my Body; This is my Blood” For none save her gave Him human life.
The Woman Who guides my pen, Which falters so with words In telling the Word.
The Woman, Who, in a world of Reds, Shows forth the blue of hope.
Accept these dried grapes of thoughts From this poor author, who has no wine; And with Cana’s magic and thy Son’s Power Work a miracle and save a soul -- Forgetting not my own.
Happy Feastday, MAMA,
Your Beloved son,
Tony
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