High Mass will be celebrated for the feast of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady, at 7:30 pm. This is arguably the most important feast of Our Lady. O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

This Feast does not refer to the Blessed Virgin Mary’s conceiving of Jesus by the Holy Ghost, but to the sinless conception of Mary in the womb of her mother, Saint Anne, by Mary’s father, Saint Joachim. Through a singular privilege of God, through the foreseen merits of Christ, Mary was preserved from the Original Sin from the very moment of her own conception. What makes her conception ‘immaculate’ is not that she was conceived by the Holy Ghost of a virgin, as was Christ Our Lord, but that from the very moment of her own conception, she was preserved from the original sin and filled with grace by God, Who knew, in His omniscience, that she would say ‘yes’ to the Angel Gabriel and become the Mother of the Saviour. Exactly nine months from now, on 8 September, we will celebrate Mary’s birthday, the birthday of the one Saint Gabriel called ‘full of grace’ (Saint Luke 1:28).