in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit hail Mary full
of grace the Lord is with thee blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the
fruit of thy womb Jesus our Lady Queen conceived without original sin st.
Joseph our patron saints and guardian angels near the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit amen today we celebrate the solemnity of our
ladies a maggot conception normally
it would have been yesterday but because of the second Sunday of Advent
the church still celebrates it doesn't let a Sunday of Advent take its place it
just moves our ladies feast over so that we still celebrate the immaculate
conception so important is this mystery of our faith and so important it is it
in the season of Advent the church doesn't eliminate it that wants to
rather call attention to this great mystery
mystery of Our Lady's
place in God's plan of salvation. We spoke yesterday
or I spoke yesterday of how I wanted to talk yesterday
of how we ought to become like Our Lady so that we could
do like her. And today I want to focus
on that. But in becoming like Our Lady
Saint Maximilian Kolbe, you know, talks about this
you have to first be like her so you can do.
Father Nuber, the famous Mariologist that was a
favorite of Saint Maximilian Kolbe and one who he learned
much about Mariology from.
Father Nuber wrote that, he says that
total consecration is the highest form of
devotion to Mary or Hyperdulia.
Total consecration is the highest
form of devotion to Mary or rather
Hyperdulia. It would seem that
total consecration is the highest form because
Christ himself was the first one to exhibit that.
Hyperdulia, when we speak of devotion to Our Lady, who was the
one who was devoted most to her was Jesus Christ himself.
And I think that's why Father Peter says that Hyperdulia
is more related to Latria than it is to Mary.
It is just a higher form of Dulia because Christ is the one
who first practiced Hyperdulia, devotion to the mother.
And devotion to his own mother.
And that Father Nuber says that the reason why Saint Louis
Grignon de Montfort refers to it as true devotion,
total consecration, because not true as in opposed to false,
but true as a superlative saying that it's the highest form.
True as in opposed to false, but true as a superlative saying that it's the highest form.
True as in opposed to false, but true as a superlative saying that it's the highest form.
True as in opposed to false, but true as a superlative saying that it's the highest form.
of devotion to Our Lady.
And to consecrate yourself to her
involves not just the love of Our Lady,
but a sharing in her life,
and sharing in especially that
consecration that she made of herself
to Jesus,
to God, the Father.
That we're wanting to become
a part of that.
So, the first thing we need to do to become like Our Lady
is to consecrate ourselves to her.
And we, of course, become like Our Lady to the measure that we pray and do penance.
Our Lady was conceived without original sin because of the special grace of the Immaculate Conception.
But we have to arrive at that by doing prayer and penance.
And the first thing we need to do is to give ourselves totally to her
so that we can do like the little prayer, the little office of the Immaculate Conception says,
By your Immaculate Conception, O Mary, make our bodies pure and our spirits holy.
It's by her Immaculate Conception that God purifies everything.
It's the way he first began his purification of us
by first having his mother come into the world so that she could be the vessel from which he would take his human nature.
You know, in the Old Testament, we know about the Paschal Lamb.
The Paschal Lamb is a type of our Lord.
But the Jews also had a sacrificial victim, an animal that they offered for purification.
And it was a three-year-old heifer, a virginal cow that they would offer whenever they needed to have a holocaust for purification.
They would offer up this heifer.
And obviously, Our Lady.
Our Lady is that type, that, you know, that she's the fulfillment of that type when God looked for Our Lady to be that holocaust,
that virginal offering that would be united with him at Calvary for our salvation.
And so to become like Our Lady, and now we have to do like her, means we have to be involved in her mission.
You might say that.
You might say that the Hail Mary is a beautiful prayer that is, as some have always said,
it really summarizes all the doctrines of Our Lady in the Hail Mary.
And it summarizes especially this whole aspect of being like her and doing like her.
What is the being?
Well, we hear already the angels say, Hail, full of grace.
The Lord is with thee.
There's her being, full of grace, the Immaculate One.
And that she, the Lord is with her.
She is the Immaculate.
And the fruit of her womb that she brings forth is Jesus.
And therefore, you might say that all of her actions, all of her doing, helps bring forth Jesus.
And that is epitomized, that doing, especially in the second part of the Hail Mary,
is that she's praying for us, now and at the hour of our death.
That she is that omnipotent suppliant.
That she is that omnipotent suppliant.
That she is that omnipotent suppliant.
That she is that omnipotent suppliant.
As the church has always said, the all-powerful supplicator.
You know, Christ is all-powerful because he is God by nature.
But Our Lady is all-powerful because of her Immaculate Conception.
Because she is the Mother of God.
And her power is that she supplicates.
She petitions her Son.
She asks for.
And what she asks for from her Son, she gets.
We see that very clearly at the wedding feast of Cana.
She didn't even have to say,
well, Son, I have to tell you what I want.
He knew that she just said, do whatever he tells you.
And that he would fulfill the task that she saw needed to be taken care of.
Son, they have no wine.
She didn't have to say any more.
So powerful was her supplication with her Son.
That as the saints have always said, he treats it as a command.
And so her doing.
We want to become involved.
We want to be involved in her doing.
And we see that so much epitomized in that why we need the fifth dogma of Our Lady.
Because that shows us what the Immaculate Conception is in action.
She's immaculate to be our co-redemptrix.
She's immaculate to be our mediatrix of all grace.
She's immaculate to be our advocate.
And so in one sense, that's what we're going to be doing if we're involved in her,
you know, like little children imitating their mother.
We're going to be her little co-redeemers.
We're going to therefore have to suffer with her.
And that's, you know, the most important part of our Christian vocation is being united with Christ on the cross.
St. Paul says, I preach Christ and him crucified, you know.
So therefore, that's going to be a big part of our Christian vocation.
And that's where many, I suppose, waver in their following of Christ,
because they don't like that part of the resume.
They don't like that part that says we have to suffer.
And then we're going to be little mediators with her.
And that we're going to be looking to bring God's grace to those around us by our prayers, by our actions,
by our wanting to be those who see the needs of those around us,
especially their spiritual needs, and seek God's grace for them by our prayer,
or whatever we can do in some way to assist them.
And then that's a part of that, being an advocate, to plead on the behalf of others.
That we see so many times there are people who have no wine, and they need God's help.
So today, as we celebrate Our Lady's Immaculate Conception,
let us pray especially that we will become more and more like her,
that we will live out our consecration,
that everyone is called to,
because Christ has done that first and foremost from Calvary when he said,
Behold your mother.
And John, the beloved disciple, took her into his home.
Let us truly take her into our homes,
and truly allow her to be the mother of the house,
the one who will take us and show us how to please Christ in all ways, in all days.
And, um,
let us pray also that we will do like her for her son in everything that God places before us.
And especially today, we want to ask Our Lady to especially look upon our nation,
and that maybe someone will re-consecrate our nation once again,
to Our Lady's Immaculate Conception.
That she was given to us by the Church,
and that as a nation, we need to re-consecrate our nation to Our Lady.
Then it will truly be.
Her property and possession.
And that it will do the works of Our Lady in the world,
not just we as individuals, but our beloved nation,
which has been given a great grace in having her as our patroness.
In the name of the Father and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
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