The Immaculate Conception
8th December

We tend to think of time in a linear fashion - it’s one thing after the other. And although we’ve explored the possibility of time travel in science fiction writing and films, we don’t really think that the future can influence the present or that we can change the past. The feast we celebrate on Monday should give us pause for thought. The Immaculate Conception shows that the redemption won on Calvary is all powerful - it sanctifies the future and the past. Mary is kept free from sin by Jesus’ death and resurrection.

There are many things for us to contemplate on this feast day - the holiness of Mary, the wonderful foreknowledge of God, the dawning of our salvation - but one thing is paramount above all else: everything is achieved through the power of grace. Mary doesn’t save herself from original sin but rather is saved by Jesus. Mary’s life is not one of superhuman struggle but one lived entirely reliant on the grace of God. Do we need to take this lesson to heart, to be a little less striving and a little more receptive to the power of God at work in our lives, to allow our loving Father to shape and fashion our lives a little more? P.D.