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Show THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION; (Written for The Intermount&In Catholic.) Holy Mother Church celebrated on Friday, December the 8th, the solemn sol-emn feast of the Immaculate Conception Concep-tion of the Bleesed Virgin. On this day, so dear to every Catholic heart, we celebrate cele-brate in the first place the moment iri which Almighty God showed Mary, through the distance of ages, to'(our first parents as the Virgin Mother of the divine Redeemer, the Avoman destined to crush the head of the serpent. And as by eternal decree she was miraculously miracu-lously exempt from all stain of origi-. nal sin and -endowed with the richest treasures of grace and sanctity, it is meet that we should honor her glorious prerogatives by this great feast of the Immaculate Conception. Let us be united to our Blessed Mother in every detail of our lives. Strive to please her in all little things, .as well as great lovingly, faithfully, perseveringly. Above all, endeavor to honor her immaculate im-maculate purity by avoiding wilful sin. Who can tell the fruits of holiness these acts will produce? - What glory to God.' What joy to Mary! By this means we shall be able to offer a magnificent mag-nificent "crown to our Immaculate Queen on the 8th of December, when, in union with all her children over the whole earth, we shall gather round her altar to sing hen praises and offer her our hearts. .- .. . , We should loin in spirit with the blessed in heaven, and rejoice with our dear Mother, not only for her own sake, but for ours, her children, who are partakers par-takers of her glory and happiness. We are called upon to celebrate that ever-memorable ever-memorable day, the 8th of December, 1854, which raised the Immaculate Conception Con-ception of Our Blessed Lady from a pious belief to the diiamity of a dogma of the Infallible Church, causing universal univer-sal joy among the faithful.- The honor that we pay to Our Blessed Mother is to us a source of great happiness. "Happy" -ve! may say with Scripture "happy are thy servants, who stand always before be-fore three." Do we not regard it as a distinction when we are permitted to approach p'rominent persons, to remain near them, to converse with them? Is not an humble individual happy when eminent persons show him condescension, condescen-sion, deem him worthy of their attention, atten-tion, thankfully accept from him presents pres-ents and his services? .Now, what are the most renowned, in comparison with the Immaculate Queen of Heaven? And it is allowed us to approach her, it is allowed us to speak to her as often, as we wish, it is allowed us to pay to her our homage, to express to her our gratitude, grat-itude, our love, she accepts the least token, the simplest work. Every tithe that we give to her, every eulogy In the Litany of Loretta, remind us of a special spe-cial gift, of a special kind of treasure, that she possesses and liberally distributes distrib-utes to all that approach her with childlike child-like confidence. Finally, devotion to the Moth of God is a great means of salvation; sal-vation; perhaps a necessary means. It is very true that God has not commanded com-manded us under threat of eternal punishment pun-ishment that we should honor Mary; without devotion to Mary he will give us the necessary grace, that we may save our souls. ; Our unfaithfulness, our indolence are, i however, so great that we need more help that we can claim, and this increase in-crease of grace we -can most certainly find in our heavenly Mother. The saints delight in representing Mary as the administratrix ad-ministratrix of air God's graces. Because Be-cause she is the Mother of the great family of God, all graces flow through her hands. "See, my brethren," says Saint Bernard, "how active, how lively, live-ly, should be our devotion to Mary, since God has filled her with all gifts, eo'that, if we possess any grace of faith, hope, or of any other virtue, it has ilowed to us from the superabundance of grace that is .in Mary. Extinguish the stars that illumine the world and what will beeome of the day? Mary is the star of the sea: where she 'does not ' furnish light, there we 'are asi-closed asi-closed in darkness." Sacred writers count the love and the veneration of Mary as one of the marks of predestination. predesti-nation. "He that shall find one," she. may say with Scripture, "shall find life; and shall have salvation from the Lord." Let us repeate frequently these, words applied by the Church to the Blessed Virgin: "Thou art all fair, O Mary! and there is not a spot in thee!" (Cont. iv, 7.) O, Holy Mary, Moth of God, I firmly believe in your Immaculate Conception; I bless God for having granted you this glorious privilege; I thank Him a thousand thou-sand times for having taught it to me by the infallible voice of the Church. Receive my heart, O Immaculate Virgin, Vir-gin, I give it up to you without reserve; purify it, guard it, never give it back to me, preserve it in your love and in the love of Jesus during time and eternity. eter-nity. Praised be the Immaculate Conception Concep-tion of the Blessed Virgin Mary. |