Immaculate Conception of Mary/Mary my mother/friend/The Church

Ruth with baby Joy 3 years ago on this date as we shared in this Holy Day of Obligation with the Catholic School kids!  How I love this beautiful statue of The Immaculate Conception... a dear close friend for these 42 years as a farm wife, mother of 5 and now grandmother of going on 20!  Many of those years my children attended school here, now grandchildren. 

3 years ago on this feast day at the Catholic School for mass... reminds us of all we have lost due to the pandemic... School did resume this week, but mass is masked with social distance.  Yet, Our Lady is there with her unconditional mothering for us as she brings us to her Son.

Sweet Baby Joy is about Birdie's age here... 7 months.

Little girls born in the spring fill us with wonder and JOY!

Birdie and bunny in her mom's sleeper.  

Beautiful Ruth with #6, Joy!  Waiting to greet her children as they leave mass 3 years ago.

Rose again in Kindergarten.

Waiting for the big kids - Simon and Mary, who are now both in high school.  Those 9 years of school at Holy Redeemer fly by so quickly!  How we appreciate the education they receive here as well as the instilling of deeper faith in Jesus, Mary and The  Church.  Faith is shared with JOY in our homes/domestic Church.  That is the most important place for faith to grow, and it is an added blessing to have this carried forth in our wonderful Catholic School!

Mary crushing the serpent as she bears Christ into the world!  

The words of the Angel in Luke 1 in the Gospel today...

“Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”
But she was greatly troubled at what was said
and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
Then the angel said to her,
“Do not be afraid, Mary,
for you have found favor with God.
Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,
and you shall name him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,
and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,
and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,
and of his Kingdom there will be no end.”

Our peaceful light filled St Mary's chapel at the Catholic School.  Thanks to Covid we had some months of adoration here in the larger chapel so that we could keep our distance while praying.  

I loved to sit at her feet and pray my litany for our families - all 250 of them.  

Flowers from my garden through the summer months... 4a with Jesus through Mary.  After I complete my litany and place each one in the monstrance with Jesus...   I repeat these words with heart felt prayer for conversion and healing and change of heart/metanoia - "Jesus and Mary, I love you.  Save souls."  

Through Mary to Jesus - "We must therefore honor this Holy Conception that made her so precious in the eyes of God and believe that we can receive the assistance of The Blessed Virgin in all our needs.  This is so beautiful it seems to me that it would be impossible for God to refuse her anything.  His divine and loving glance never left her since she always lived according to his will.  Therefore we must be convinced that he is always ready to grant whatever she requests because she asks for nothing that is not for his glory and our good."  St Louise de Marillac (1660)

My mother had a devotion to Mary, the Mother of God!  This is what caused her to long to come into The Church.  My father was a Protestant minister at the time, so it seemed hopeless to her.  The Holy Spirit answered her hopes and dreams...

https://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/the-amazing-story-of-13-becoming.html

Close to her!  With the rosary throughout my day... she is always with me.  Yesterday after a failed attempt to get some calves back into the yard through an opening in the fence... the "Hail Mary" prayer was on repeat in my inner chapel... soon they saw the opening and all were soon inside the fence.  Thank you, My mother Mary!  

Can't get enough of this special time.  How we pray that our country and world can return to being close as we worship and gather for life's happenings.

Pat with his Rose and Joy 3 years ago.  "The little ones would get that big arm across them and they would be good for grandpa."  They can tell that you love them and ALL LIFE!  My champion for LIFE and family is dear Patrick, my Most Cherished Cross.  How so?  When we embrace our Cross as Jesus asks of us - we receive LIFE/LIGHT/LOVE.  

https://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/my-most-cherished-cross-patrick-gerard.html

Joy with the beautiful Christmas stocking her mom stitched for her over many hours!

Now 3 years later - so fitting that her name is JOY as that is what she brings into our world!  She runs up to grandpa and grandma with a huge smile, arms wide, hugs us and says; "Hi grandma!"  Talk about a dose of happiness that brings a smile to our faces!

This arrived from John and Bobbi yesterday!  These two are just 13 months apart, and it is so special to see how they are growing in love for each other!  Birdie just lights up when her brother comes close to her and he is her favorite focus of attention.  

Mary's goats sure are friendly and cute.  The cows outside seem to think they are interesting too.

Lord, we are humble children that need a wonderful mother to hold us close when life is confusing or overwhelming.  She brings us to you, and we cannot love her more than you do, Lord Jesus.  It is so powerful to know that if we love your mother as she deserves... that there is only one place for us to find a home - Your True Church!  That says a lot!  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Hallelujah

The LIGHT has cast out the darkness.  It is so good to have the Season of Advent as we share prayer and Jesus in The Word by the Advent wreath as we light each new week with more and more light!  Bless-bless, Barbara

So inspired to know that Mary told St Bernadette that her name was "Immaculate Conception right when the Church had announced this as dogma!

The Feast of The Immaculate Conception
The Immaculate Conception, one of the four dogmas of the Catholic Church, maintains that from the moment the Blessed Virgin Mary was conceived in the womb, she was kept free of original sin, so that she was from the start filled with the sanctifying grace normally conferred in baptism. O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

This was suggested by Brother Victor Antione today in his meditation...We kneel at the first verse of the hymn to show our reverence to Mary...The antiphon and psalms of Vespers are of tender serenity.  They portray the fullness of grace granted to Mary at the moment of her conception, for in the divine plan, Mary, the humble maiden is to become the spotless Mother of God, the abode of the Most High.

Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception

of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Patronal Feastday of the United States of America

December 8

_______________________

 

Sing to the Lord a new song,

for He has done marvelous deeds.  - Psalm 98:1

God chose Mary the Immaculate to be "a model of holiness" ... At Mary's conception, a new way of being human happens, and we are "chosen, destined" to share it.  Adam and Eve were tricked by the serpent's "conception." The yes of Mary at the Annunciation, the culmination of the Immaculate Conception, undoes the disobedience of Eden and makes paradise a possibility once again for us. - From Magnificat, Vol 21, No 10, Dec 2019.  www.magnificat.com

 

 

Lift your heart in joy and exalt Him                   Laud the glorious Conception
In the Blessed Sacrament all Holy, supernal     Of the Queen in God's Kingdom

 

Where the Lord, His glory veiling,                    Who remaining Virgin stainless,
Comforts souls true and lowly.                          Bore for men the Word eternal.

 

Alabado, sung after Benediction

The Immaculate Conception (detail): Sassoferrato

 

Excerpt: Homily, St Patrick's Cathedral -
8 Dec 1996 - John Cardinal O'Connor...

 

"Today is the date of the Immaculate Conception, the eighth of December...Mary was made immaculate, conceived without any trace of sin because she was going to be the co-creator of the humanity of Christ.  She was going to be, as God the Father was the Creator, the re-creator of the human race with Christ.  She was going to be the tabernacle in which Christ would be conceived.

 

    We cannot now, of course, be conceived without original sin.  But the more we can purify ourselves through the Sacrament of Penance, through our own penances, through trying to observe the Commandments and keeping close to Christ, then the more fitting we become as tabernacles of the Eucharist.

 

    All of this requires an effort, perhaps for some an unaccustomed effort. St Augustine tells us the reward.  He was still in process of conversion from a highly profligate, promiscuous life.  Then he went into a Catholic community to worship in the Eucharistic sacrifice.  He said to a Catholic friend:

       

    "How I wept, deeply moved by your hymns, songs, and the voices that echoed through your Church!  What emotion I experienced in them!  Those sounds flowed through my ears, distilling the Truth in my heart.  A feeling of devotion surged within me and the tears streamed down my face - tears that did me good."

 

    May that be our experience in this Holy Sacrifice of the Mass."

Glorious things are spoken of you, O Mary,
for from you arose the sun of justice, Christ our God.
(Communion Antiphon - today's liturgy)

"To the maternal intercession of Mary,

the Virgin of expectation,

 let us entrust our path toward the Lord,

while we continue our Advent itinerary

of making our heart and our life ready

for the coming of Emmanuel, God-with-us."

 

- Benedict XVI, 12/05/11, Noon Angelus

 

 

 O chosen and fairest Virgin Mary,

intercede for us!