Good morning, good people.

May the Lord give you grace, peace, and health in the Holy Spirit.  

It is on 8th December 2022.  We celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  We reflect on Gn 3:9-15, 20 and Lk 1:26-38

For us all, Mary our Immaculate Mother is always beautiful. 

A child was crying as the king visited the city.  He enquired the child and found out that she lost her beautiful mother.  So, the king ordered that all the beautiful mothers of the kingdom be brought before the little child in the royal court.  There was none among the beautiful mothers gathered.  Having waited for a long time to find the mother, all eyes turned towards a poor mother -a simple and humble lady.  The king got surprised to see the poor outfit and outlook of a mother who is called the beautiful mother. 

For every child, mother is the beautiful one.  For us all, Mary our Immaculate Mother is always beautiful.  “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Mt. 5:8).  

Mary’s conception was immaculate.

Purity is the beauty of our soul.  We feel stripped naked by the storms and the moisturized dust of sins.  

The little visionary St. Bernadette in the Grotto of Massabielle, called Mother Mary, the “beautiful Lady”.  She revealed her name, saying “I am the Immaculate Conception”. 

Immaculate Conception is indeed a mysterious name filled with feeling that spells out the conviction that Mary’s conception was immaculate and had already existed for centuries before the apparitions in Lourdes, cemented by Blessed Pius IX, who defined the Dogma on 8 December 1854. 

Wherever the Catholics are gathered, the Immaculate Mother is venerated.  

It is Her motherhood, docility, humility, and purity that crowns this honour to our Lady for eternity.  We all are called to live a pure, blameless, and holy life not for a day but for the entire life.  St. Paul reminds us all about our original calling, “before the world was made, he chose us, chose us in Christ, to be holy and spotless.”

It is through God’s grace and mercy that we are repeatedly reenkindled and revived in the spirit of purity.   

May the Lord help us live a chaste life that pleases God. 

His Holiness Pope Francis pleads for the cause of entire humanity with these words, “Through your intercession, may the power of God’s love that preserved you from original sin, free humanity from every form of spiritual and material slavery and make God’s plan of salvation victorious in hearts and in history.  May grace prevail over pride in us… In this time leading up to the celebration of Jesus’ birth, teach us to go against the current: to strip ourselves, to be humble, and giving, to listen and be silent, to go out of ourselves, granting space to the beauty of God, the source of true joy.”

Immaculate Mother, intercede for us all to be pure and free from sin.  

May God bless you.

Fr. Peter Fernando, OFMCap.

Director, Office of Family Ministry
Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia (AVOSA)
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Website: https://reflectionsofpeter.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/samarpet