Dear Parishioners,
I hope that you were able to participate in our 3 day Advent Mission. We thank Fr. Jim Greenfield, OSFS for his inspirational talks at the weekend Masses and Sunday, Monday and Tuesday evenings!
Among some Catholics and various others, there is still a
misunderstanding regarding what is meant by the term (or title) Immaculate Conception. Some people mistakenly think that this
title refers to Jesus and His being
conceived miraculously in the womb of His Mother Mary.
In 1854, Pope Pius IX proclaimed the following in the
Apostolic Constitution Ineffabilis Deus:
The most Blessed Virgin Mary was,
from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of
almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Saviour of the human
race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin.
This proclamation was one of two notable times in the history
of the Catholic Church when a pope declared an infallible dogma ex
cathedra (that is, from the chair of St. Peter’s
teaching authority). The other occasion
was the dogma of the Assumption of the
Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven.
Our catechism instructs us:
“Through the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary,
"full of grace" through God, was redeemed from the moment of her
conception. That is what the dogma of
the Immaculate Conception confesses
. . . .” The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 491. Mary was redeemed
by Christ as all humanity is, but her redemption began at her very conception in the womb of her mother by a singular grace--hence, the term Immaculate Conception.
Around the same time as the pope, bishops and theologians
were wrestling with this theological matter, Bernadette Soubirous was born in Lourdes, France in 1844. Saint
Bernadette, as she is now known, is remembered for having received eighteen apparitions
of the Blessed Virgin Mary between
February 11 and July 16, 1858. Our Lady
asked for a chapel to be built at a grotto in Massabielle where the
apparitions occurred and a miraculous spring of water now flows. During these apparitions, Our Lady identified
herself to St. Bernadette with the phrase “I
am the Immaculate Conception.” St.
Bernadette, an illiterate peasant girl with no formal training in theology, had
no idea what the phrase Immaculate Conception meant. She was only fourteen at the time of the visions. It seems that in these apparitions Our Lady herself
confirmed what the Church had formally declared just four years earlier. The Church holds these apparitions as worthy of belief.
The Solemnity of the
Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary is celebrated December
8th and is a Holy Day of Obligation. Catholics are supposed to attend Mass
this day and our Catholic school children in the Diocese of Camden are given off from school so that they can go to Mass. The schedule at the parish is 7 PM vigil Mass on Wednesday, December 7, and 8:30
AM, 12 Noon (new!) and 7 PM bilingual (English and Spanish) Masses on Thursday, December 8.
Our Lady, as the Immaculate
Conception, is the patroness of our country and our diocese. She should certainly have a special place in all
our hearts.
Fr. Ed Namiotka
Pastor
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