254 Stanisław Cardinal Ryłko Chairman of the Pontifi cal Council for the Laity Vatican HOMILY Vespers on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the BVM December 7, 2008 I warmly greet the Superior General, Fr. Jan Mikołaj Rokosz, and all of the Marians who are going to celebrate their Congregation’s annual feast tomorrow, as well as all esteemed guests who kindly gathered here to participate in our communal prayer, which introduces us into the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. The short reading from Vespers on the Second Sunday of Advent calls us to joy: “Rejoice in the Lord always! I say it again: Rejoice! (…) The Lord is near” (Phil 4:4-5). The spiritual path of Advent is illuminated by the person of Mary Immaculate whom the Church shows us today as a beacon of light and joy. The Immaculate One—the new Eve—is a noble example of awaiting the Lord who comes to save us. In the Virgin from Nazareth, the prophecy from the Book of Genesis was fulfi lled: “I will put enmity between you and the woman [said the Lord to the serpent], and between your offspring and hers; He will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel” (Gen 3:15). Her Immaculate Conception opens a decisive stage in the history of the salvation of mankind, which reaches its culmination in the Incarnation of the Son of God and His Paschal Mystery. The “fullness of time” (Ga 4:4) has come. In Mary, God prepared for His Son a holy and most pure dwelling. In the bulla proclaiming the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, Pope Pius IX thus wrote: “… the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the fi rst instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin.”2 Mary of Nazareth represents the noble model of redeemed humanity. “Hail, Mary, full of grace! The 2 Pius IX, Bulla Ineffabilis Deus, 1854 (quote taken from “The Papal Encyclicals online).
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