Dear Saints,

This coming Monday we observe the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In short, we’ll celebrate the remarkable reality that God gave Mary the gift of salvation in Christ from the moment of her conception.

As Mary knew better than anyone, every divine gift is a call in search of a response. She was given the privilege of being conceived without original sin so that she could fulfill her unique role in history as the mother of God. Her wholehearted yes stands as the reply par excellence and a model for each of us.

The prophet Jeremiah tells us that God knew and “dedicated” each of us before he even formed us. In other words, he has staked out a unique and unrepeatable calling for each and every human being. He has given you a mission no one else can accomplish and without which his plans and purposes go unfulfilled. When you think about it, that means he’s placed extraordinary confidence in us. Like Mary, we should respond to him with equally extraordinary confidence: “let it be done to me according to thy word.”

Christ’s Peace,

Father Daniel

δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ