This year the Second Sunday of Advent falls on December 8th. As a result, the observance of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Patronal Feast of the United States of America, is transferred to Monday, December 9th.
Recently, in a pastoral letter, Bishop McManus clarified that the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary is numbered among those special feasts that are always days of obligation even when the feast day is transferred to another day.
At the same time, the Bishop highlighted the canonical principle that no one is held to the impossible and that occasionally a grave cause may render it impossible to attend Mass on days of obligation –– for example, due to illness or important family needs.
Our Masses at Immaculate Conception on Monday, December 9, are 12:15pm and 7pm.
Pope Francis reminds us that the “angel Gabriel greets the Virgin like this: ‘Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you.’ He doesn't call her by her name, Mary, but with a new name that she did not know: full of grace. Full of grace, and therefore free from sin, is the name God gives her and that we celebrate today.
By calling her by that name, God reveals her greatest secret to her, which was previously unknown to her. Something similar can also happen to us. In what sense? In the sense that we sinners have also received an initial gift that has filled our lives, a good greater than anything else: we have received an original grace. We talk a lot about original sin, but we have also received an original grace, of which often we are unaware.
What is it, this original grace? It is what we received on the day of our Baptism, which is why it is good for us to remember, and even celebrate it!
Let us never forget God’s great gift of Grace which this upcoming Solemnity reminds us of so richly!