Next Wednesday, December 8th, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. A holy day of obligation, in which we must not forget that we are part of a priestly people, devoted to divine worship. To celebrate the date, the Sanctuary of Health and Peace will hold three masses on this day: at 7 am, 10 am, and 7 pm.

Two of these masses will be broadcast by Padre Eustáquio Channel, On YouTube: the 10 am and 7 pm services. Those attending the Padre Eustáquio Church for one of the three masses will need to follow health and safety protocols, sanitizing their shoes and hands upon entering the church, and wearing a mask at all times while inside.

Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady

We are in the Advent season, and the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is part of the mystery of the coming of the eternal Son who became Man in the virginal womb of Mary. We celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary and adore the mystery of the preparation for the coming of the Lord. Yes, if Advent is a time of preparation for Christmas, the Immaculate Conception signifies that God prepared a "Woman" to be the first home, the first dwelling place of the Lord.

The doctrine of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception is expressed in the Bull of proclamation of Pope Pius IX, “Ineffabilis Deus” of December 8, 1854:“For the honor of the holy and undivided Trinity, for the adornment and ornament of the Virgin Goddess… with the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul and ours, we declare, proclaim and defineThe doctrine that holds that the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instant of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of humankind., He has been preserved immune from all stain of original sin, it is revealed by God and therefore must be believed firmly and constantly by all believers.” (DENZINGER-HÜNERMAN, Compendium of symbols, definitions and declarations of faith and morals, 2803).

The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is the feast of the pure principle, of that reality that brings into existence and which, in Mary, is the principle of life, of the fullness of grace. It is the full, absolute principle, not emptiness, nothingness, but a personal reality, indeed, a Trinity of Persons who, being principle, is also end, for in the principle is already contained the end, an end of fullness in which every man and every woman is involved. And this principle was revealed in Jesus Christ, the complete manifestation and involvement of the principle with created reality. To understand the Immaculate Conception, we must understand that this principle is also ours. Therefore, it is our feast, as we are all included in God's plan to be holy and immaculate because of the revelation of the principle that occurred in Jesus Christ (cf. Eph 1:4).

**With information from cnbb.org.br (article by Dom Jaime Vieira Rocha, Archbishop of Natal-RN)