The Immaculate Conception

This image is the "Madonna of the Street". I have come across it in various places...on the wall of the classroom at the college I attend, on prayer cards, on the website for the sisters of life... I have seen numerous images of the Blessed Virgin Mother, but for some reason this image seems to portray to me in a particular way the simplicity, serenity, sanctity, and humanity of our Mother in Heaven.

On this, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, despite everything else that I could (should?) be working on, I felt I had to make a post to mark this day. This isn't procrastination. It's getting my priorities straight.

I had typed up a personal reflection on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception and then I decided that perhaps I'd be better off not posting it for some things are better left treasured in the heart than posted for the world to see. And much like myself, my thoughts on the Immaculate Conception consists of a work in progress.

Yet, I still wanted to mark this occasion and call upon you who read my blog to take the time to reflect in the depths of your own heart what implications the Immaculate Conception has in your life and the relevance of this mystery.

Perhaps as a starting point you'd like to read the doctrine on the Immaculate Conception:

In the Constitution Ineffabilis Deus of 8 December, 1854, Pius IX pronounced and defined that the Blessed Virgin Mary "in the first instance of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin."

For further reflection consider Pope John Paul II's Consecration of the Church and the World to the Blessed Virgin Mary on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception in 1990.

Through the Immaculate Heart of Mary may you always be drawn closer to Christ.