Today the church recalls that Mary, as the Theotokos or God bearer, was free from the stain of original sin. Many Christians may question such a dogma declared by the church in 1854 by Pope Pius IX in his Ineffabilis Deus. However, it seems only natural that God’s grace would keep Mary free from sin who is representative of our human destiny to be in full communion with a God that wanted to vanquish our sin by walking among us in human form. The Patroness of the Immaculate Conception is also the Patroness of the United States. While the United States is far from perfect, such an example reminds those citizens living within her borders that they should all strive for seeking God’s grace and to do His will just as Mary did. Mary’s fiat and acceptance of saying yes to bearing Jesus in her womb can only result in receiving sanctifying grace and being in perfect union with God from the moment of her conception.
Pope BI. Pius IX – 1854
Excerpt from The Immaculate Conception https://www.papalencyclicals.net/pius09/p9ineff.htm
And indeed it was wholly fitting that so wonderful a mother should be ever resplendent with the glory of most sublime holiness and so completely free from all taint of original sin that she would triumph utterly over the ancient serpent
As St. Anselm describes about Mary in the Office of Readings in the Roman Breviary:
God, then, is the Father of the created world and Mary the mother of the re-created world. God is the Father by whom all things were given life, and Mary the mother through whom all things were given new life. For God begot the Son, through whom all things were made, and Mary gave birth to him as the Saviour of the world. Without God’s Son, nothing could exist; without Mary’s Son, nothing could be redeemed.
Let us reflect on this gift of grace that God has bestowed upon Mary today. Mary’s triumphant victory over sin with the reception of bearing God’s Son is a reminder to all of us of our destiny.
Let us reflect on today’s Collect from the mass as we go about our day:
O God, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin prepared a worthy dwelling for your Son, grant, we pray, that, as you preserved her from every stain by virtue of the Death of your Son, which you foresaw, so, through her intercession, we, too, may be cleansed and admitted to your presence. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
StreetEvangelist 
