Jesus has given us his Blessed Mother as our Spiritual Mother (Rev.12:17), a Heavenly Advocate who intercedes for us.
“The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, celebrates the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary on 8th December, nine months before the feast of the Nativity of Mary on 8th September. It’s one of the most important Marian feasts in the liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church.”
The Immaculate Conception is central to the Catholic faith. It’s believed that Mary’s Immaculate Conception prepared her to become the sinless mother of Jesus. The belief means that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was preserved without sin for her entire life. It was Mary’s closeness to Christ that made her receive God’s “fullness of grace” to be sinless. Mary was immune to the stain of original sin, making her an immaculate vessel for bringing Jesus – God in human form – into the world.
Pope Pius IX defined the Immaculate Conception as dogma in 1854 with the papal bull Ineffabilis Deus.
In iconography, Mary is often depicted standing with her arms outstretched or hands clasped in prayer.
The column of the Immaculate Conception in Rome, is a famous monument dedicated to the Immaculate Conception. It was commissioned by Pope Pius IX and features a bronze statue of the Madonna. Since 1953, the pope visits the Column of the Immaculate Conception in the Piazza di Spagna to offer expiatory prayers commemorating the solemn event.
The feast was solemnized as a holy day of obligation on 6 December 1708, by the papal bull Commissi Nobis Divinitus of Pope Clement XI. It is celebrated with masses, parades, fireworks, processions, food and cultural festivities in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Catholic countries.
“The definitive iconography for the depiction of “Our Lady of the immaculate Conception ” seems to have been finally established by the painter and theorist, Francisco Pacheco in his ” El arte de la pintura” of 1649: a beautiful young girl of 12 or 13, wearing a white tunic and blue mantle, rays of light emanating from her head ringed by twelve stars and crowned by an imperial crown, the Sun behind her and the moon beneath her feet. Possibly, a reference to “a woman clothed with the sun.” (Rev. 12:1-2)
The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, places Our Lady before the faithful as an example of what God can do and what we can do, if we, like Mary, put our trust in God in all that we do in our daily lives.
Sherida D’Souza