The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin MaryOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | MassThe Feast of the Immaculate Conception

The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is the doctrine that the Virgin Mary was conceived without original sin, that twist in our nature that makes our will tend not to follow what it knows to be right. It was this grace that enabled Mary to give a true and considered “Yes” to the request, conveyed by the Angel Gabriel, that she should consent to be the mother of the incarnate God.Because it is so old, this is one of the Marian doctrines that Islam shares with the Catholic Church, though of course the theological details are very different. ‘in a famous Hadith attributed to the Prophet, it is affirmed that: “Every child is touched by the devil as soon as he is born and this contact makes him cry. Excepted are Mary and her Son”. From this Hadith and from verses 35-37 of Sura III, Moslem commentators have deduced and affirmed the principle of Mary’s original purity.’ (Giancarlo Finazzo. L’Osservatore Romano, 13 April 1978). The full text of the article is here.The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was almost universally believed over the centuries but was only formally defined as a doctrine of the Church by Pope Pius IX in 1854.

Saturday of the 1st week of Advent, or Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin

Office of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | Mass(Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin (1474 - 1548))

2nd Sunday of AdventOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | Mass(Our Lady of Loreto)

Since the Middle Ages veneration for the Holy House of Loreto has been the origin of that particular shrine which still today is visited by many faithful pilgrims in order to nourish their faith in the Word of God made flesh for us.In the Holy House, before the image of the Mother of the Redeemer and of the Church, Saints and Blesseds have responded to their vocation, the sick have invoked consolation in suffering, the people of God have begun to praise and plead with Mary using the Litany of Loreto, which is known throughout the world. In a particular way all those who travel via aircraft have found in her their heavenly patron.In light of this, Pope Francis has decreed, by his own authority, that the optional memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Loreto should be inscribed in the Roman Calendar on 10 December, the day on which the feast falls in Loreto, and celebrated every year. This celebration will help all people, especially families, youth and religious to imitate the virtues of that perfect disciple of the Gospel, the Virgin Mother, who, in conceiving the Head of the Church also accepted us as her own.Catholic Liturgy Office