The month of the Immaculate Conception

December is dedicated to the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In 1854, this dogma was officially defined by Pope Pius IX as one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church, and the Feast of the Immaculate Conception is celebrated on December 8th. For some countries this is a national public holiday, while for others it is a Holy Day of Obligation.

“I am the Immaculate Conception.” This is what Our Lady told Bernadette of Lourdes, a young peasant girl who knew nothing of such things. This meant that when Mary was conceived in the womb of her mother, St. Anne, she was preserved by a singular Grace of God, and through the foreseen merits of her son Jesus Christ, from the stain of original sin. This New Eve, who said “Yes” to God, unlike the original Eve, was Holy enough to bear the Son of God in her womb, the most pure vessel.

Our Lady of Guadalupe

December 12 marks the Feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. We recall the four Marian appearances at Tepeyac Hill in 1531 to St. Juan Diego. Our Lady asked that he went to the Bishop and requested a church to be built on the apparition site. The Bishop hesitated and requested for a sign from the Lady. At his request, Our Lady sent Juan to the summit of Tepeyac Hill in the middle of December, and picked blooms of Castilian roses - roses which shouldn't have been blooming at that time of year. He wrapped them up in his cloak (his "tilma") and rushed off to show the Bishop the sign. When he unfurled his tilma before the Bishop, and the roses scattered onto the floor, there appeared on his cloak a miraculous image of the Lady he'd seen.

St. Juan Diego’s tilma remains intact in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City over the centuries. There have been bomb attack and vandalism to the tilma, but it was virtually unaffected. Our Lady of Guadalupe continues to be a source of hope for people today, and millions of pilgrims visit this image each year to venerate it and asking for her intercession as the patroness of unborn children, for every child at risk of abortion.