This year, the feast of the Immaculate Conception will bring to a close the Year of St. Joseph. Thus, in the loving protection of both Mary and Joseph, in this time of preparation for Christ’s birth, we present to Her all the many worries and preoccupations that weigh upon us. We entrust to her the coming year, asking her to guide us in and through it, that each day of 2022 will bring us closer to her Son.
Reflection:
The light that shines from the figure of Mary also helps us to understand the true meaning of original sin.
Indeed that relationship with God which sin truncates is fully alive and active in Mary. In her there is no opposition between God and her being: there is full communion, full understanding. There is a reciprocal “yes”: God to her and her to God. Mary is free from sin because she belongs entirely to God, she empties herself totally for him. She is full of his Grace and of his Love.
~Benedict XVI, December 8, 2012
Prayer:
This is the oldest recorded Marian prayer, outside of the texts from the Gospels:
We fly to Thy protection, O Holy Mother of God. Do not despise our petitions in our necessities, but deliver us always from all dangers, O Glorious and Blessed Virgin.
