Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception

by Fr. John Granato  |  12/03/2023  |  Words from Fr. John

My Dear Friends,

This coming Friday is one of the most important feats of our Church year. We celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, when Mary is conceived without sin in the womb of St. Anne. The privileges of the Blessed Mother are meant for two things; one is to protect the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the other is to help us on our way to eternal life.

Mary has been called the mediatrix of all graces, for as the Queen Mother she approaches the King, Jesus Christ, and she intercedes for us. And because Mary was conceived without Original Sin, she is not under the penalty of Eve. If you remember Genesis, because of the sin of Eve, women were to bring forth children with labor pains. Mary would never have experienced labor pains, for she was free from that penalty. It also reinforces that Mary is indeed ever-Virgin, which means that she not only never had any other children, but Mary also was a virgin before and during the birth of Jesus. This teaching has been held by Catholic and Orthodox Christians, as well as King Henry VII (the founder of the Anglican church) and Martin Luther (the founder of the Lutheran church).

The pain that the Blessed Mother experienced was not in giving birth but in the fact that a sword would pierce her heart when she would witness the death of her Son on the Cross. There have been many movies about the nativity story these last twenty years, and as far as I can tell, every single movie portrays Mary as experiencing labor pains. These movies, even if they aid in your spiritual growth during the Christmas season, are not truly Catholic in approach of Mary and Joseph and our Lord.

I encourage you to be very careful when you watch one of these movies and maybe say a Hail Mary during that particular scene in reparation of portraying our Blessed Mother in a non- Catholic way.