@AlphrediteOnNoiseApp 9 December 2021 more from that month

The dictate of the Heart: The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary Luke 1:26-38 It was two years ago that I composed the hymn of the Immaculate Conception Parish where I was assigned.  I thank the Blessed Mother who inspired me to put words into the song.  I am very sentimental with this solemnity of the Immaculate Conception because it was when I did my first mass after my ordination 31 years ago.  The Blessed Mother becomes my mother who is so close to my heart because I know that she is always there when I need her.  It is unimaginable for any priest without the maternal protection of the Blessed Mother because a priest is an “Alter Christus,” the other Christ.  Our Lord Jesus is very close to the heart of His mother. Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”  She is faithful to fulfill God’s word which we all must do. Today, we celebrate the triumph of God’s mercy as He prepared Mary, the chosen one, from the womb of her mother, St. Anne.  She was immaculately conceived without any stain of sin.  Mary was full of God’s grace from the first moment of her existence.  Throughout her life, Blessed Mary has always been totally turned towards God, completely open to God’s call and His presence. Today’s gospel reading is leading us to many points for reflection and meditation: First, it suggests that Mary struggled to receive this extraordinary favor from God and for all it would entail for her special mission in the Salvation History. In the Book of Genesis, our first parents, Adam and Eve, could not resist the temptation to eat from the forbidden tree. Despite all the many ways that God had blessed them in the garden, they took more than they were entitled to. Having rejected God’s will in this way, they hid from God.  It was a shameful act of pride that led them to think that they were gods. Thus, to restore those broken relationships between men and God, it was an opportune time that God sought us back to Him through the gracious heart of the Blessed Mother to cooperate with His plan.  Second, when Mother Mary surrendered through her “Fiat,” her Yes to God, she became a source of blessing to all of humanity, the chosen one through whom Jesus came to us. Like Mary, we are to surrender our lives to God who has so favored us, allowing God to work in and through us. Through our complete surrender, we too give birth to Christ in our lives becoming a source of blessing for others. Third, Mary’s holiness and goodness is a product of her openness to God’s word and God’s call which she lived out amid the challenges and struggles to understand the message of an Angel who said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.” Because of her special grace, she receives an intimate relationship with her conceived Son through the Holy Spirit, who penetrated her human heart. Brothers and Sister, let us offer ourselves over by doing what God asks of us and opening ourselves more completely to God’s word and God’s will for our lives. As we try to answer the same call, we can look to Mary for inspiration and for help.  Just as Mary had an experience of a darker human experience because of humanity’s rejection of her Son, Jesus, she completely remained to God’s life-giving word.  This season of Advent calls on us to be as open as Mary to her fidelity of her mission, even in our own times of painful struggle.  If we keep on trusting in the plan of God, there is that fulfillment and we also become the source of blessings for others and the world.  Mary was conceived without sin and further upheld through these words of our Father St. Augustine, “For wholly alone of those born of woman was our Holy Lord Jesus, who by the strangeness of His undefiled Birth has not suffered the pollutions of earthly corruption but dispelled them by heavenly majesty.” (FC, Vol. 30, Saint Augustine Letters 165-203)  “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.” Fr. Arlon, osa