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The Christmas Cycle
Prayer
O God, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, didst make ready a worthy dwelling
place for Thy Son: grant, we beseech Thee, that, as through the foreseen death of the
same Son, Thou didst preserve His mother from all stain of sin, so may we likewise be pure
in heart through her intercession and may come to Thee. Through the same Jesus Christ
Thy Son, our Lord. Amen.
Second Day in the Octave
The mystery of the Virgin Mother which gives us the Redeemer at Christmas is based on the
Immaculate Conception and on purity. Christmas demands pure hearts and pure intentions.
“O God, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, didst make ready a worthy dwelling
place for Thy Son” (Collect). Mary, who was worthy to be a dwelling place for God, is free from
all personal sin, from all inordinate inclinations. She was not merely cleansed immediately after
her conception, but she is exempt from all stain from the first moment of her existence. “I will
put enmities between thee and the woman” (Gn 3:15). Thus Mary, stainless in her purity and
heavenly in her beauty, from the first moment of her existence was a worthy habitation for the
most high God. The Lord comes to the pure. Christmas demands pure hearts.
“Thou art all fair, O Mary.” Mary’s soul was enlightened by the light of purity, her will was
perfectly united to God’s will, her heart was free from every inordinate inclination and desire.
She had the greatest dread of all sin, the most ardent love of every virtue, the most intimate
union with God, and a complete forgetfulness of self. “Thou art all fair, O Mary, and the stain
of Original Sin is not in thee.” “Hail, full of grace.” Because thou art pure, thou art full of grace;
because thou art full of grace, the Lord is with thee, and thou art blessed among women. Hail,
Mary, for through thee we possess purity, life, salvation, Christ, and heaven. Fruitful purity!
“Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.” They shall see God at Christmas time,
in their daily Holy Communion, and in the uninterrupted union of their soul with His. Their
vision of God will be complete and perfect when their eyes close upon this world and open
upon the eternal life beyond. “They shall see God.”
Advent and Christmas require purity of heart in us. “I will put enmities between thee
[Satan, sin] and the woman.” This applies to us and to the Church as well as to Eve and Mary.
We swore such enmity in baptism when we said, “I renounce Satan.” We then swore enmity,
unremitting enmity, to Satan, sin, and the world.
God wills to take up His abode in our souls at Christmas. He seeks a worthy dwelling place
such as He prepared for Himself by Mary’s Immaculate Conception. Am I such a dwelling
place? Mary Immaculate, be thou our model and ideal.
Mary is also our most powerful intercessor. We should beseech her to obtain from God for
us the graces necessary to make us worthy dwelling places for the Lord who is coming. In the
Mass of the feast we pray: “Grant, we beseech Thee, that . . . we may likewise be pure in heart
through her intercession and may come unto Thee.” Mary is our mediator. We go to her to
obtain the grace to become ever more pure and holy in thought and work, so that we may look
forward with joy and confidence to Christ’s coming on the Day of Judgment.
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