Second Sunday of Advent and
Feast of the Immaculate Conception

The full entry below is taken from the most excellent Regina Magazine: https://reginamag.com/the-immaculate-conception-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary/?ct=t
What the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception means is that from the first moment of her conception, God, foreseeing and anticipating the merits of Jesus’s passion and death, and knowing Mary would say “yes” to becoming the Mother of the Saviour, filled her with grace, and preserved her free from all stain of original sin. The Church assumes Mary herself was conceived in the normal way through loving intercourse of her father Joachim with her mother Anne. The date of the solemnity is co-ordinated with that of Mary’s Nativity on 8th September (nine months later).
Immaculate Mary, your praises we sing, You reign now in splendor with Jesus our King. Ave, Ave, Ave Maria! Ave, Ave, Ave Maria! In Heaven the Blessed your glory proclaim, On earth we your children invoke your sweet name. Ave, Ave, Ave Maria! Ave, Ave, Ave Maria!
We pray for the Church, our true mother on earth And bless, Holy Mary, the land of our birth. Ave, Ave, Ave Maria! Ave, Ave, Ave Maria!
Adapted from The Liturgical Year by Abbot Gueranger:
At length, on the distant horizon, rises, with a soft and radiant light, the aurora of the Sun which has been so long desired. The happy Mother of the Messias was to be born before the Messias Himself; and this is the day of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. The earth already possesses a first pledge of the divine mercy; the Son of Man is near at hand. Two true Israelites, Joachim and Anne, noble branches of the family of David, find their union, after a long barrenness, made fruitful by the divine omnipotence. Glory be to God, Who has been mindful of His promises, and Who deigns to announce, from the high heavens, the end of the deluge of iniquity, by sending upon the earth the sweet white dove that bears the tidings of peace!
The Feast of the Blessed Virgin’s Immaculate Conception is the most solemn of all those which the Church celebrates during the holy Season of Advent; and if the first part of the cycle had to offer us the commemoration of some one of the mysteries of Mary, there was none whose object could better harmonize with the spirit of the Church in this mystic season of expectation. Let us, then, celebrate this solemnity with joy; for the Immaculate Conception of Mary tells us that the Birth of Jesus is not far off.
Continue reading