Friday, December 08, 2006

Happy Feast of the Immaculate Conception!


Today we celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Holy Virgin Mary. We do not worship her, rather we worship and praise God for creating her in this way so that Christ, the Word of God Incarnate, would have a pure and holy vessel untouched by sin, just as the Ark of the Covenant, which held the Word of God inside it, was pure and untouched.

Here is more about the Immaculate Conception from Catholic Answers:

It’s important to understand what the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is and what it is not. Some people think the term refers to Christ’s conception in Mary’s womb without the intervention of a human father; but that is the Virgin Birth. Others think the Immaculate Conception means Mary was conceived "by the power of the Holy Spirit," in the way Jesus was, but that, too, is incorrect. The Immaculate Conception means that Mary, whose conception was brought about the normal way, was conceived without original sin or its stain—that’s what "immaculate" means: without stain. The essence of original sin consists in the deprivation of sanctifying grace, and its stain is a corrupt nature. Mary was preserved from these defects by God’s grace; from the first instant of her existence she was in the state of sanctifying grace and was free from the corrupt nature original sin brings.

When discussing the Immaculate Conception, an implicit reference may be found in the angel’s greeting to Mary. The angel Gabriel said, "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you" (Luke 1:28). The phrase "full of grace" is a translation of the Greek word kecharitomene. It therefore expresses a characteristic quality of Mary.

The traditional translation, "full of grace," is better than the one found in many recent versions of the New Testament, which give something along the lines of "highly favored daughter." Mary was indeed a highly favored daughter of God, but the Greek implies more than that (and it never mentions the word for "daughter"). The grace given to Mary is at once permanent and of a unique kind. Kecharitomene is a perfect passive participle of charitoo, meaning "to fill or endow with grace." Since this term is in the perfect tense, it indicates that Mary was graced in the past but with continuing effects in the present. So, the grace Mary enjoyed was not a result of the angel’s visit. In fact, Catholics hold, it extended over the whole of her life, from conception onward. She was in a state of sanctifying grace from the first moment of her existence.


Today is a Holy Day of Obligation, so don't forget to go to mass!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Happy feast to you! Thanks for the great catechesis! The truths of our faith are always beautiful to ponder!

Pup said...

man I typed a whole big thing but it didn't post. Here's what I remember:
-Thank you for the birthday wishes. I had a great day
-We are ungatefull for our cat who we got to catch mice but we fuss at for trying to eat the hamsters.

- I wish you still lived here so I could talk to you w/o the risk of offending ppl with my stupid questions and smarass observations

- My smartass observations for this post:
1) Catholics eat a lot
2) In the picture it looks like Mary is trying (unsuccessfully) to smuggle babies

I love hearing about the Saints. I graduate in 9 days and want you here!

Well, that's all I can remember. Love you!

Stephanie said...

Lol, you crack me up!! I miss you too, I'm so happy you're graduating!!! I wish I could be there!

FloridaWife said...

Ahhhhh.... You put me in your sidebar. I'll put you on mine too.

Peace be with you this day.

Pup said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Pup said...

Someone asked me why the just drizzle water on a baby and why they are 'baptized' when they are babies. I don't remember who it was. I think it was alden but the words "Is the holy water expensive so they have to save it or something" comes into my head and I think it's paul (he's creepy). So my main source of info, why do they drizzle baby's heads and call it baptism?
I really think it was alden, I told him it was to wash away the sin after they are born with so they won't go to hell if they die. He asked how they could be baptised if they hadn't accepted christ and I told him as baptists we had the age of reasoning, if we hadn't reached that age God forgave us but catholics ..... this is where I got stuck, I justabout called you on that one. It's neat that I can talk with him about Catholicism. I was talking to my best friend Kristin about it too, maybe it was her I was talking to. I know more about it than she does and was correcting her on some of the 'tv catholic' misconceptions.

Stephanie said...

Thanks Florida Wife =) I kept wanting to check your blog and had to keep searching for the link, lol, so I made it easy on myself and added it =)

Stephanie said...

Guess what, Hollie? I'm going to devote a post to your question! I realize I don't have one about infant baptism yet, so now's a good time! Watch for it soon!