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The Christmas Cycle
it cannot be the fault of our divine guest, who wishes to do great things to us. No, the fault
must be our own.
“Glorious things are said of Thee,” O holy Church, O Christian soul. “Come, ye blessed of
My Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Mt
25:34). O blessed day of the coming of the Lord! He offers to the Church and to all of us the
perfect and eternal possession and enjoyment of God, a blessed, eternal, perfectly satisfying
participation in the pure, holy life of God. Come O Lord, give us Thy salvation in the endless
communion of eternal life.
Prayer
Inviolate and inviolable and all pure art thou, O Mary, shining gate of heaven. O exalted mother
of Christ, mother most beloved, graciously accept our praise. We fly to thee with heart and
mind; make us pure in body and soul. Through thy all-powerful intercession obtain for us
mercy, O beloved queen, O Mary free of all stain. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Sixth Day in the Octave
“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, and my soul shall be joyful in my God” (Introit). Thus the
Church rejoices when contemplating the Immaculate Conception. “Glorious things are said of
thee, O Mary; for He who is mighty hath done great things unto thee” (Communion).
On December 8, 1854, Pope Pius IX declared to the universal Church: “The doctrine which
teaches that the Blessed Virgin Mary in the first instant of her conception, by a singular privilege
and grace granted by God in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, was preserved exempt from all
stain of Original Sin, is revealed by God and is a dogma of faith for all the faithful.” Mary owes
this singular privilege to the merits of the death of her Son as foreseen by God. She, like ourselves,
was redeemed by Christ’s death; that is, redeemed in the sense that she was preserved
from Original Sin in virtue of His death. She was free not only of Original Sin, but also of all
personal sin throughout her life. She was perfectly pure in all her thoughts, feelings, inclinations,
and desires. Since she was preserved from the sin of Adam, she was a virgin in body and in
spirit. “This gate shall be shut. It shall not be opened and no man shall pass through it, because
the Lord, the God of Israel hath entered in by it, and it shall be shut for the Prince. The Prince
Himself shall sit in it” (the womb of the Virgin) (Ez 44:2 f.).
Since she was without sin, she was restored to life a few days after her death and was taken
up into heaven. “And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the
moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars” (Apoc 12:1). She is the one
who has overcome sin, Satan, death, and the world. “I will put enmities between thee and the
woman, and . . . she shall crush thy head” (Gn 3:15; Benedictus antiphon). Indeed, “glorious
things are said of thee, O Mary.” We rejoice in the belief of the Church. “He who is mighty hath
done great things unto thee.”
The Church today makes a single moving plea, a plea for purity. She prays for purity in
the Collect, the Secreta, and the Postcommunion. The Church is not satisfied with praising
and admiring the virtues of Mary; we must indeed strive to reproduce in ourselves the spirit
and the virtues of her whom we admire, love, and venerate. The liturgy leads us even further;
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