Today is the glorious Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God. It is also a Friday. What thoughts might come to mind while praying the Sorrowful Mysteries of Our Lady’s Rosary, customary on Fridays, against the large backdrop of this joyful feast?
Consider the collect the Church prays on this day:
O God, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin didst prepare a worthy dwelling-place for Thy Son: we beseech Thee, that as by the foreseen death of the same Thy Son, Thou didst preserve her from all stain, so Thou wouldst grant unto us also, through her intercession, to come unto Thee with clean hearts.
Dogmatically, we know that Jesus Christ redeemed the Blessed Virgin Mary, and that this was done preventively, meaning before Original Sin ever touched Her (this is explained further here). The oration above says that “the foreseen death of the same Thy Son” accomplished the Immaculate Conception. As is the case with all those who are justified, Our Lord’s “most holy Passion on the wood of the cross” was the “meritorious cause” of Our Lady’s justification — to use the words of the Council of Trent. In Her case alone, justification was the infusion of the “fullness of grace” that makes Her truly Panagia, i.e., “All Holy.”
She was made All Holy today — at Her Immaculate Conception — when She was more than just shielded from Original Sin, but was filled with God’s grace and gifts. And this constitutes the preparation spoken of by the collect, the divine work of preparing Mary to be “a worthy dwelling-place” for the Son of God.
Now, to the Sorrowful Mysteries.
In the Passion, when Mary Immaculate sees the flagellation, Jesus Crowned with thorns, Jesus carrying His Cross (think fourth Station), and, finally, Her blessed Son hanging on the “infamous gibbet” for three hours, She is beholding Her own salvation being effected before Her very eyes. In real time, She sees the present events that have already had their efficacy in Her person — at the very moment of Her conception.
Mary’s Immaculate Heart is broken with sorrow at the very thing that makes It Immaculate.
And thus She becomes the “cause of all our joys” — causa nostrae laetitae.
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A blessed Feast of Mary’s Immaculate Conception — the patronal Feast of the United States of America — to all our readers.
LORENZETTI, Pietro (b. ca. 1280, Siena, d. 1348, Siena), The Road to Calvary (detail), c. 1320. Fresco, Lower Church, San Francesco, Assisi (source). This file has been identified as being free of known restrictions under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights.
