A short reflection for the day of the Immaculata,
the Feast of the Immaculate Conception
of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Father Joseph Kentenich attested that a pure person possesses natural dignity that comes from God and a pure person knows how to preserve it. Purity makes a person receptive to grace and ready to fulfill God’s wishes.
Words of Father Kentenich:
“On the threshold of paradise shines the great sign:
I will put enmity between you and the woman! (Gen 3,15)
In the course of the millennia, a mortal being—the Mother of God–realizing within herself a piece of the lost paradise, would appear!
She would not allow herself to be touched by the serpent, but would crush the head of the serpent, the devil, with her virginal, pure, motherly foot. The Blessed Mother had to be immaculate; she had to be undefiled and completely free from all sin because she was called to a perfect union of love with God. With the Redeemer, she was destined to crush the head of the serpent and face him in eternal enmity . . .
Ave Maria Immaculata!
There is nothing impure within her! She is a mirror without spot, purer than the sun, whiter than snow! She is a reflection of the Eternal Sun, Jesus Christ.
She is the one who crushes the head of the serpent. Wherever the serpent, wherever the devil is at work, she must appear if the battle is to be decided in favor of the Savior, the great Redeemer of the world.
Because the Mother of God is the virginal mother of the Savior, because she is so intimately united with the Redeemer of the world, her sphere of interest is all-encompassing.
The Ideal of the Fully Redeemed Person
The Church shows us the ideal of the fully redeemed person: the great Immaculata.
In difficult times, the image of the Immaculata has a purifying, uplifting, transfiguring effect on us.
The Church shows us the Immaculata, the new, fully redeemed person, in response to our longing for purity and nobility.
When we kneel before the great Immaculata, so many thoughts, emotions–so much longing, hope, and expectation is awakened in us!
We congratulate her from the depths of our heart! We rejoice when we see her, for we see in her, as in a mirror, the glory of God himself.”