I was walking home with the dog last night in the cold and dark and as we passed the Bishop's Palace thought of calling into the Grotto beside the little Church of St Therese for a visit as I always do. But because it was so cold and dark I thought the Church grounds would be locked so late. My dog , however being used to these visits dragged me in regardless, which I took as a little Sign from Heaven. The Statue of Our Lady of Lourdes is one of the ugliest little things I have ever seen in my life, but I am all the more fond of it on account of that, somehow. Anyway it is in a beautiful garden setting. Our Lady of Lourdes appeared shortly after the Church Declared the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception in order to confirm it. There is a portion of the film, 'The Song of Bernadette', which i often think of in this regard. The Parish Priest reproaches St Bernadette for quoting Our Lady as having said, 'I am the Immaculate Conception', what the priest said was that Mary should have said , 'I was Immaculately Conceived (past tense). To which St Bernadette replied that she would tell Our Lady how the priest had set her straight the next time they talked. But anyway this shows how the Immaculate Conception is a Perpetual Ongoing Event of the Holy Spirit, which is quite something.
The more we pray to Mary to more we get to know her and the more amazed we become at her True Greatness, rooted as it is in a total humility and hence hidden. We are like treasure hunters constantly unearthing hoards of gold and jewels from her Immaculate Heart. At last we can understand why even St Gabriel, one of the Seven Spirits, Holiest of all, who stands in the Very Presence of the Throne of God bowed before her and cried out, 'Hail Full of Grace!' If all the Virtues and all the graces and all the holiness of all the saints and angels were combined, hers alone would surpass them all. Oh Sanctissima!!
This feast is so important around the world, but also is a reminder that 8 years before the pope declared as infallible dogma Mary’s Immaculate conception, the bishops of the US, chose and sought permission from the pope for the Blessed Virgin Mary under her title of the Immaculate Conception as the patroness of the United States of America. As this year of St. Joseph now closes, I feel a very strong pull and need to go the Patroness of our nation, seeking her protection, guidance and love. And as she said during Jesus’ first public miracle at Cana, “Do as He Says”. O Mary, conceived without sin, have mercy on on who have recourse to you. https://www.catholiccompany.com/magazine/america-immaculate-conception-5944
It's so strange that the Orthodox reject the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception, considering how strong a Devotion they have to the Mother of God. But many Catholic saints rejected the idea of the Immaculate Conception before the Dogma was declared. In fact St Catherine of Sienna (a Doctor of the Church) said she had a vision of Our Lady were Mary (she said) told her (St Catherine) that she was NOT the Immaculate Conception (a good example of where we have to take Private Revelations with a pinch of salt). But I think the big mistake the Orthodox made was in being Schismatic and this cuts them off from the spring of truth.
That's the best touchstone to test the prophesized conversion of Russia: The Immaculate. “Because I want My whole Church to recognize this consecration as a triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, so as then to spread devotion to Her and to place devotion to the Immaculate Heart alongside devotion to My Sacred Heart.” (Our Lord to Sister Lúcia, 1936) How can Russia be converted through the interception of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and, at the same time, reject Her Immaculate Conception as a heresy? In this case, the heresy is indeed the rejection of this fundamental dogma of faith, among others. This orthodox heresy could also be listed as one of the "grave offenses against the Immaculate Heart of Mary", also spoken at Fatima. As far as I know, the"Immaculate Conception of Mary" and the "Immaculate Heart of Mary" are already venerated in the Byzantine world and they have a place in the orthodox liturgy, but only in the Uniate Churches, which are in fact the true Orthodox Churches. The other orthodox churches are still waiting for the best time to be converted.
I have a wonderful memory of spending this feast day at Our Lady's House at Ephesus in Turkey in 2012. It was so special. I really love this feast of Our Lady
WHO THEN ARE YOU, O IMMACULATE CONCEPTION by St. Maximilian Kolbe Just a few hours before his second and final arrest, St. Maximilian Kolbe on February 17, 1941, wrote down his last reflections on the Immaculate Conception. The question, "Who are you, O Immaculate Conception?" occupied his priestly mind and heart forming him to be a living witness of the power of the Immaculate and to die as a living offering of love. “IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. These words fell from the lips of the Immaculata herself. Hence, they must tell us in the most precise and essential manner who she really is. Since human words are incapable of expressing divine realities, it follows that these words: “Immaculate,” and “Conception” must be understood in a much more profound, much more beautiful and sublime meaning than usual: a meaning beyond that which human reason at its most penetrating, commonly gives to them. St. Paul wrote, quoting the Prophet Isaiah: “Things that the eye has not seen, that the ear has not heard, that the heart of man has not imagined” (Is. 64,4), such are the good things that God has prepared for those who love him (I Cor. 2,9). Here, these words apply fully. However, we can and should reverently inquire into the mystery of the Immaculata and try to express it with words provided by our intelligence using its own proper powers. Who then are you, O Immaculate conception? Not God, of course, because he has no beginning. Not an angel, created directly out of nothing. Not Adam, formed out of the dust of the earth (Gen. 2,7). Not Eve, molded from Adam’s rib (Gen. 2,21). Not the Incarnate Word, who exists before all ages, and of whom we should use the word “conceived” rather than “conception”. Humans do not exist before their conception, so we might call them created “conceptions.” But you, O Mary, are different from all other children of Eve. They are conceptions stained by original sin; whereas you are the unique, Immaculate Conception. Everything which exists, outside of God himself, since it is from God and depends on him in every way, bears within itself some semblance to its Creator; there is nothing in any creature which does not betray this resemblance, because every created thing is an effect of the Primal cause. It is true that the words we use to speak of created realities express the divine perfections only in a halting, limited and analogical manner. They are only a more or less distant echo- as are the created realities that they signify- of the properties of God himself. Would not “conception” be an exception to this rule? No; there is never any such exception. The Father begets the Son; the Spirit proceeds from Father and Son. These few words sum up the mystery of life of the Most Blessed Trinity and of all the perfections in creatures which are nothing else but echoes, a hymn of praise, a many-hued tableau, of this primary and most wondrous of all mysteries. We must perforce use our customary vocabulary, since it is all we have; but we must never forget that our vocabulary is very inadequate. Who is the Father? What is his personal life like? It consists in begetting, eternally; because he begets his Son from the beginning, and forever. Who is the son? He is the Begotten-One because from the beginning and for all eternity he is begotten by the Father. And who is the Holy Spirit? The flowering of the love of the Father and the Son. If the fruit of created love is a created conception, then the fruit of divine Love, that prototype of all created love, is necessarily a divine “conception.” The Holy Spirit is, therefore, the “uncreated, eternal conception,” the prototype of all the conceptions that multiply life throughout the whole universe. The Father begets; the Son is begotten; the Spirit is the “conception” that springs from their love; there we have the intimate life of the three Persons by which they can be distinguished one from another. But they are united in the oneness of their Nature, of their divine existence. The spirit is, then this thrice holy “conception,” this infinitely holy, Immaculate Conception. Everywhere in this world we notice action, and the reaction which is equal but contrary to it; departure and return; going away and coming back; separation and reunion. The separation always looks foreword to union, which is creative. All this is simply an image of the Blessed Trinity in the activity of creatures. Union means love, creative love. Divine activity, outside the Trinity itself, follows the same pattern. First, God creates the universe; that is something like a separation. Creatures, by following the natural law implanted in them by God, reach their perfection, become like him, and go back to him. Intelligent creatures love him in the conscious manner; through this love they unite themselves more and more closely with him, and so find their way back to him. The creature most completely filled with this love, filled with God himself, was the Immaculata, who never contracted the slightest stain of sin, who never departed in the least from God’s will. United to the Holy Spirit as his spouse, she is one with God in an incomparably more perfect way than can be predicated of any other creature. What sort of union is this? It is above all an interior union, a union of her essence with the “essence” of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit dwells in her, lives in her. This was true from the first instant of her existence. It was always true; it will always be true. In what does this life of the Spirit in Mary consist? He himself is uncreated Love in her; the Love of the Father and of the Son, the Love by which God loves himself, the very love of the Most Holy Trinity. He is a fruitful Love, a “Conception.” Among creatures made in God’s image the union brought about by married love is the most intimate of all (cf. Mt. 19,6). In a much more precise, more interior, more essential manner, the Holy Spirit lives in the soul of the Immaculata, in the depths of her very bring. He makes her fruitful, from the very first instant of her existence, all during her life, and for all eternity. This eternal “Immaculate Conception” (which is the Holy Spirit) produces in an immaculate manner divine life itself in the womb (or depths) of Mary’s soul, making her the Immaculate Conception, the human Immaculate Conception. And the virginal womb of Mary’s body is kept sacred for him; there he conceives in time- because everything that is material occurs in time- the human life of the man-God. And so the return to God (which is love), that is to say the equal and contrary reaction, follows a different path from that found in creation. The path of creation goes from the Father through the Son by the Holy Spirit; this return trail goes from the Spirit through the Son back to the Father; in other words, by the Spirit the Son becomes incarnate in the Womb of the Immaculata; and through this Son love returns to the Father. And she (the Immaculata), grafted into the Love of the Blessed Trinity, becomes from the first moment of her existence and forever thereafter the “complement of the Blessed Trinity”. In the Holy Spirit’s union with Mary we observe more than the love of two beings; in one there is all the love of the Blessed Trinity; in the other, all of creation’s love. So it is that in this union heaven and earth are joined; all of heaven with all the earth, the totality of eternal love with the totality of created love. It is truly the summit of love. At Lourdes, the Immaculata did not say of herself that she had been conceived immaculately, but, as St. Bernadette repeated, “Que soy era immaculada councepciou”: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” If among human beings the wife takes the name of her husband because she belongs to him, is one with him, becomes equal to him and is, with him, the source of new life, with how much greater reason should the name of the Holy Spirit, who is the divine Immaculate Conception, be used as the name of her in whom he lives as uncreated Love, the principle of life in the whole supernatural order of grace?”
You can hear heaven dance when this Feast rolls round. I have been hearing the sound of loud dancing from heaven for a couple of weeks now. Like River Dance.
I was friends with a very humble and holy priest who suffered much from bishops and priests of a modernist outlook. He died a few years ago on this feast day. Over the years he often said mass in my house on the feast of the Immaculate Conception. I'm sure he is looking down from Heaven on us today
St Maxlmilian Kolbe was so well educated. I believe he had a Doctorates in both Philosophy and Theology and was not at all influenced by Modernist Heresies, bless him. I read a story one time that he was in a public disputation with a Bishop as a young priest in Rome one time and the Bishop in Exasperation said to him, 'Young man I have a Doctorate in Theology!' to which st Max casually replied, 'So do I!' I visited the cell were St Max was Martyred in Auscwitch/ Cried my eyes out. He reminds me so much of a later day St Louis Grignion De Montford.
The big mistake the poor Orthodox made was to go into schism. But they were provoked a lot by the arrogance and pride of the them Roman Pontiff.. just as the Protestants were provoked by corruption in the Catholic Church. It doesn't excuse it but it does explain a lot. The Catholic Church really is the One , True and Apostolic and really does have the fullness of Truth and when you cut yourself of from Rome you cut yourself off from the fullness of Truth (something latter day Schismatics should recall). I notice many Russian Orthodox today are proclaiming Putin as, 'Katcheon'. A kind of latter day Mahdi (Islam) or Joan of Arc figure. As described by St John the Theologian (Orthodox saint)in prophecy. He is a kind of Leader/Saint who is to come and save the world from evil at the end times. In Catholic prophesy we talk of a similar leader whom we call the, 'Great King' . Many in the Russian Military are convinced of this. If you are going to send out young people to die they better believe in something and the something they are believing in is Orthodoxy, the fact that the West has gone to hell in a basket and that Putin is the Katcheon. As we see in the recent inauguration of the Russian Military Cathedral, which is drop dead gorgeous and must have cost billions.
The Immaculate Conception is a Great Mystery. Our Minds can only take us to the doorstep of this Holy Temple. In order to enter the Holy of Holies a little we must,as Moses did take our shoes off. The shoes of pride. The proud can never enter in. All heresy is rooted in Pride. ..and so as far the Immaculate Conception is concerned the Modernists stand outside totally lost and confused. They will never take the shoes of pride off. Only the humble can enter here. But you know before Our Lady went to Lourdes to confirm the Dogma she went to the Rue Du Bac in Paris. But because the Parisian clergy rejected her (they were too proud) she had to go to Lourdes, in Hicksville, up the in mountains were the humble hicks took to her like duck to water....they didn't mind taking their shoes off... The Miraculous Medal of course is all about about the Immaculate Conception and its relation to the Book of the Apocalypse.
I know what you mean... Religion is often confused with nationalism in Russia and there is also a lot of idolatry on that. Russian soldiers line up to kiss an “icon” of Putin, while a Russian Orthodox priest of the Moscow Patriarchate blesses them. Joseph Stalin icon was used to bless Putin’s strategic bombers at Engels Air Base in Russia. June 2015. http://euromaidanpress.com/2016/08/...sions-militaristic-rhetoric-euromaidan-press/
During the, 'Great Patriotic War', (the Nazis Invasion of Russia) Joe Stalin ( who had previously went on to become an Orthodox Priest) suddenly did a great reversal and brought back religion into play as a reason to fight the Germans. Suddenly and briefly religion became fashionable again. Then when the Germans were on the run, they were all sent back to the Gulags. No more religion. Times change and times remain the same.
You are so blessed. I once nearly went to Ephesus with my family, planning to stop over in Turkey on a trip to Europe. But it did not happen, we chose another airline. We visited Fatima in Europe that year and stopped over in Japan on the way back to visit Akita. Since then, it has been my deep desire to also visit the House of Blessed Virgin in Ephesus one day. I have seen a picture of Pope Benedict kneeling in veneration in that house, and I am very much drawn to it. Of course, now everyone is fighting for survival. A vaccination policy is coming out which will affect me, in the next few hours. Where to go, where is our refuge? Archbishop Vigano says, under Mary's mantle. Tonight we are going to Holy Mass for the feast of the Immaculate Conception and we will consecrate our family to St. Joseph, the Protector, according to Fr. Mark Goring. Today, the year of St. Joseph ends and Mother Mary is taking over. God bless
That Russian Military Cathedral is very new but needs already some redecoration... The icon on the left displays banners with the slogans “CRIMEA IS OURS” and “FOREVER WITH RUSSIA”, the one on the right bears a poster of the Soviet communist dictator and persecutor of Russian Christians, Josef Stalin. Symbols of the Soviet communist regime in the stained glass windows on the roof. And the mosaics need no description.... Sorry, I don't buy it.
I am wearing the miraculous medal around my neck and have been for years. My wife, to my amazement, has also recently started wearing hers. By the way, thank you Padraig for having pointed out the Sacred Heart badges. We have ordered them, they arrived, we had them blessed, and I have put them on my kids' kindy and school bags
