As I imagine most of you already know, this week we as a Church celebrate the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. Since it is sometimes a point of confusion as to what this holy day of obligation is all about, here is a quick refresher. From Wikipedia: “The Immaculate Conception of Mary is, according to Catholic doctrine, the conception of the Virgin Mary without any stain (“macula” in Latin) of Original Sin.” This feast day is not the Annunciation, which is when we celebrate Mary’s “yes” to the angel Gabriel, and the conception of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I can understand a lay person making the mistake of confusing the Immaculate Conception with the Annunciation and Incarnation of our Lord, but a Roman Catholic priest? I will not post the priest’s name, but a prominent east side pastor appears to have confused the two holy days when he writes:
Sometimes I think our Rochester priests could use a refresher course on the Catholic faith every once in awhile. Everything from the definitive teaching that men alone are ordained priests, down to the basics of our holy days.
Tags: Progressive Drivel
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did you check the readings of the day you can find them at usccb.com [.org]
That’s what the priest may have been thinking when he wrote it, but this holy day is not the Annunciation. On the Immaculate Conception, we contemplate how Mary was saved from Original Sin so she would be worthy to bear the savior of the world.
Actually, while not particularly clear, the insight contained herein is very orthodox since the gospel reading is that of the Annunciation. The Church connects the feast of the Immaculate Conception and that of Annunciation in this way: because of God’s gift to Mary (her Immaculate Conception) she was empowered to say “a resounding Yes” to the Annunciation. Again, this aspect of the feast is emphasized by Luke’s gospel. You might want to check some saints’s commentaries in the future and offer a corrective as opposed to an out-and-out denunciation!
Perhaps, but without mentioning that the feast commemorates Mary’s being born without Original Sin, it sounds more like the priest has swapped the two feasts rather than trying to deliver some kind of insight into the connection between the two.