Catholic Fire

Your birth, O Blessed Virgin Mary, fills the whole world with a sweet consolation and a holy joy, because of you was born our Jesus, our God, who has taken away from us the curse in which we were plunged by the sin of our first parents, and filled us with all kinds of blessings.  ~ St. John Vianney “The Immaculate Virgin…invites us not to fix our eyes on her but to pass beyond, and as much as possible, to enter into the mystery in which she was conceived: the mystery of God who is One and Three, full of grace and fidelity.”  ~ Pope St. John Paul II The Catholic Church celebrates the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary on its traditional fixed date of September 8, nine months after the December 8 celebration of her Immaculate Conception as the child of Saints Joachim and Anne. History of this feast day The feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, one of the oldest of the Marian solemnities, was mentioned by the Church Fathers in the early fifth century. ...

Saint Anne conceiving the Virgin Mary Jean Bellegambe Douai, Musée de la Chartreuse This year the Church has transferred the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception to today so as not to conflict with the 2nd Sunday of Advent, but the obligation to attend Mass does not transfer. This solemn dogma was defined by Blessed Pius IX in 1854. Our Lady Immaculately Conceived is the patroness of the United States of America.   "The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Saviour of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin. " — Catechism of the Catholic Church Blessed Pope Pius IX on the 8th of December 1854 proclaimed the Dogma of the faith revealed by God that the Blessed Virgin Mary "in the first instant of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Sav...