What Is The Immaculada Conceptia

Reminiscence while I reflect to put a few thoughts, how we sang hymns for the Visitation of Mary to our families. Hymns in Latin that we did not understand. One of them was ‘Immaculada Conceptia’. It was all about praying to Mother Mary to intercede for us to be holy, chaste and pure.

The feast of the Immaculate Conception marks the sacredness of Mary who was preserved by the Almighty from all eternity to be a part of the plan of redemption from the moment she was conceived. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) says: To become the mother of the Saviour, Mary “was enriched by God with gifts appropriate to such a role.” The angel Gabriel at the moment of the annunciation salutes her as “full of grace”.  In fact, in order for Mary to be able to give the free assent of her faith to the announcement of her vocation, it was necessary that she be wholly borne by God’s grace, (CCC no. 490). This feast is a time of soul searching, a challenge not only to be chaste and pure but also pure in mind and heart.

Through the centuries the Church has become more aware that Mary, “full of grace” through God, was redeemed from the moment of her conception. That is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception confesses, as Pope Pius IX proclaimed in 1854: 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, Saviour of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin (CCC no.491). Further No. 493 says: The fathers of the Eastern tradition call the Mother of God “the All-Holy” (Panagia), and celebrate her as “free from any stain of sin, as though fashioned by the Holy Spirit and formed as a new creature”. By the grace of God Mary remained free of every personal sin her whole life long. “Let it be done to me according to your word. . .”

We know that Adam and Eve were both created immaculate, without original sin. But they fell from grace and through them mankind was bound to sin. To establish that which was lost the Almighty God planned the mysterious plan from all eternity and prepared humankind through the Exodus and all that is witnessed in the Old Testament. Thus He gave us the New Eve and the New Adam, in Mary and Jesus Christ who remained faithful to the Immaculate Conception.

There are times in our life when we find ourselves at cross roads; where we experience the dark night of the soul; when we sigh, Oh God, are you there? What is it that you want of me? Why am I here? What is the purpose of my life…? And indeed when you touch the core of your being you’ll find the answer. Yes, it will spring from the gut: In the words of St Paul: ‘that the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, has blessed me in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, and chose me in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him’. Eph 1: 3-4.

May the invocation: ‘Oh Mary through your immaculate conception, make my body pure and my soul holy’, be made whole.