Dear Parishioners and Friends,
Normally
December 8th is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. This
year, however, the Second Sunday of Advent takes precedence and the feast day
is transferred to Monday, December 9 without it being a Holy Day of Obligation.
The Blessed Mother
reminds us of the importance of faith. She is the woman of great faith whose
unique cooperation in God’s plan of salvation brought about the birth of Our Savior.
She received this grace of salvation at the moment of her conception and
remained sinless her whole life. As Pope Francis’ encyclical on faith (Lumen Fidei) says, believers become “a
new creation” (19) and their life faith is seen as a “primordial and radical
gift which upholds our lives” (19). Mary was the most perfect of the new
creation and her whole life was sustained by her faith.
The Pope goes on
the say that those who have opened their hearts in faith are transformed by a
primordial love and then their lives “are enlarged and expanded” (21). When we
receive Christ in faith – the one who is Love – he then lives in us and our
lives take on “a whole new breath” (21).
Mary had such a
heart open by faith and expanded by love. She most perfectly lived the life of
Christ in her own life. May she help prepare our hearts to receive in faith the
Christ child whose birth we will soon celebrate.
In Christ,
Msgr. Baker
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