Immaculate Conception, Intimacy of God

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday, Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, 08 December 2025
Genesis 3:9-15, 20 ><}}}}*> Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12 ><}}}}*> Luke 1:26-38

*“Cestello Annunciation” by Botticelli painted in 1490; from en.wikipedia.org.*

We praise and thank God today on this Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary that formally kicked off the process of the fulfillment of his promised salvation in Jesus born by the Virgin Mother.

According to our official Church teaching called dogma, Mary was conceived by her mother St. Anne without any stain of original sin through the merits of Jesus Christ our Savior. Mary has to be pure and clean because she would bear the Son of God who is perfect and spotless.

God chose Mary to be the Mother of Jesus not because of her having any special traits but purely out of God’s goodness “who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens” (Eph.1:3).

Hence, this feast reminds us too to imitate the Blessed Virgin in saying “yes” to God’s invitation to cooperate in his wonderful plans of bringing Jesus into this world so darkened by sin that has left us broken and fragmented from each other. Rejoice, therefore, because everyday, God sends us his angel to greet us with “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you” (Lk.1:26), inviting us into an intimacy with him like Mary.

*Photo by author, left side of the facade of the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, Holy Land, May 2019.*

Intimacy is more than being close with another; it is an expression of love that is willing to sacrifice, to suffer and get hurt for the sake of the beloved.

God was the first to express his intimacy with us not just by expressing his immense love for us in words by the prophets in the Old Testament but by sending us his Son Jesus Christ who became human like us in everything except sin. Actually, God does not need to become human like us to save us but he chose to be one of us because he loves us so much. As an expression of his intimacy and solidarity with us, Jesus suffered and died on the Cross while going through every pain and hurt we go through in life like grief and sadness in losing a friend, betrayal by a friend, abandonment by friends, no to mention being terrified, going hungry and thirsty. Jesus became like us so that we may become like God – intimately loving him through others.

Actually, God does not need us but he chose to love us, to be with us, to be intimate with us because he loves us so much. God remains God even without us. When we do not pray, when we do not go to Mass on Sundays, when we are bad and not good, God is still God. It is us humans who are lessened when we turn away from from God.

That’s the intimacy of God with us.

How about us, are we willing to be intimate with God in Jesus Christ?

Sadly, many people “create” and “force” intimacy which is a grace, a gift of God freely given to everyone. Like friendship, we cannot force intimacy into someone not meant to be. And like friendship too, intimacy begins in Christ, blooms in Christ.

Photo by author, chapel beneath the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth; see those pilgrims praying behind iron grills at the back of the sanctuary which is the site where the Angel announced to Mary the birth of Jesus Christ.

Underneath the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth is a chapel near the very site where the angel is believed to have appeared to Mary to announce the coming of the Savior. At the back of the sanctuary of this chapel is that holy site of the Annunciation enclosed by iron grills with an altar table at the center with the declaration in Latin, Verbum Caro Hic Factum Est (The Word became flesh here).

Mary’s intimacy with God began long before the Annunciation to her by the Angel cultivated in her prayer life. Every time I pray this scene of the Annunciation, I always imagine Mary deeply absorbed in prayer. Most likely, she must be praying about her coming wedding to Joseph. Luke and Matthew were both consistent about their status as being “betrothed to each other” when God announced through the Angel the birth of the Christ.

*Photo by author, close up of the* Annunciation site beneath the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth; written on the altar table that says in Latin, “The Word became flesh here.”

Imagine the excitement and joy of two faithful Jews getting married soon when suddenly the Angel appeared to them on separate occasions and diverse situations to announce God’s plan of sending his own Son Jesus Christ for the salvation of the world?

It must have been most painful to both Mary and Joseph but as being truly faithful and loving of God, they both agreed to the Divine plan! And that is the great sign of their immense love for God – eventually for each other. Moreover, in saying yes to God, both Mary and Joseph showed the kind of intimacy they have with the Divine.

Let us focus on the intimacy of Mary with God on this Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception found in our gospel account of the Annunciation.

*Photo by Rev. Fr. Gerry Pascual of Iba, Zambales at Santuario di Greccio, Rieti, Italy in 2019.*

Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you ahve found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus (Luke 1:30-31).

Notice that in many scenes and prayers about the Blessed Virgin Mary, we find the prominence of her “womb” like here in the Annunciation and when Elizabeth praised her during her Visitation as “blessed is the fruit of your womb” (Lk.1:42).

In Hebrew, the word for womb is “racham, rachamin” which is their word too for “mercy” because for them, God’s mercy comes from his innermost being. Hence, whenever the Jews speak of mercy of God, they point their fingers downward into the womb or uterus and moves it upward to the heart to indicate the flow of mercy of God from his innermost being expressed in love which is he’s very being and core.

This is the reason the Church Fathers translated mercy into “misericordia” from the Latin verb to move or to stir – “misereor” – and word for heart “cor” that literally means “to move or to stir one’s heart”. It is more than a feeling like compassion; mercy is deeper as it encompasses one’s being leading to intimacy that is a communion or oneness with others which is also intimacy.

*Photo by author, Church of the Visitation, Ein-Karem, Israel, May 2017.*

Where there is love, there is always intimacy with the lover willing to bear all pains and hurts for the beloved. And vice versa. Like Jesus. Then Mary who was willing to sacrifice her wedding and marriage to Joseph by being the Mother of the Son of God.

But why? Because we have experienced too that true joy comes only when there is giving of self, when there is willingness to let go and suffer. At the Last Supper, Jesus described joy as like a mother in the pangs of childbirth when she goes through a lot of pains and worries and fears almost like dying but once the baby is delivered, joy happens because she had brought forth a new life into the world.

True joy is having the firm belief that no matter what happens even in the worst scenarios, God would never leave nor forsake us. Joy happens when we find new life, new directions because there is another person willing to remain with us, assuring us we are never alone. That again is intimacy when you feel not alone especially in the most trying times.

Without intimacy with God and another person, there can be no true joy because no one would dare to take risks in this life like mothers. This is what modern women are missing when they see childbearing more as a chore or a burden or a suffering they can always avoid than self-giving borne out of love which happens in the context of an intimacy. No wonder too that sex has been so trivialized, reduced to an activity and act instead of as a gift of self because there is no more responsibility and intimacy. We cannot have lasting and meaningful relationships without intimacy.

On this Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, we are reminded of God’s mercy and intimacy with us, of his loving relationship with us that continues in Christ Jesus with Mary.

Let us nurture this beautiful relationship with God that flows and bears fruit in our relationships with one another.

Like Mary, may we finally say yes to God into an intimate relationship with him through our selflessness. Like Mary, we are blessed and full of grace. The joy awaiting far outweighs the pains and sufferings we shall go through in our gift of self in our relationships. Have no fear for Jesus had suffered first before us so that we can love and be intimate like him. Amen. Have a blessed week.

Immaculate Conception is God making room in us; do we make a room for God too?

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday, Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, 09 December 2024
Genesis 3:9-15, 20 ><}}}}*> Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12 ><}}}}*> Luke 1:26-38

*Photo by Rev. Fr. Gerry Pascual at Palazzo Borromeo, Isola Bella, Stresa, Italia 2019.*

The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary is one of the most awaited feasts in our predominantly Catholic Christian country due to its timing that is so close to Christmas as well as our deep devotion to the Blessed Mother.

Yet, it is also the most problematic because every year, the biblical passage we hear in its celebration is the Annunciation of the Birth of Jesus Christ that is held on March 25 so that people often confuse the December 8 Solemnity as Mary’s Immaculate Conception of Jesus. Of course, there is no direct quotation in the bible of Mary’s Immaculate Conception for it is a fruit of long process of deliberations and reflections in the Church that was finally made official in 1854 as a Dogma.

For those still confused, today’s celebration is when Mary was immaculately conceived in St. Anne’s womb through the merits of Jesus in all eternity, being freed from any stain of original sin so that she may bear our Savior, the Son of God, all-perfect, into the world who is the Christ.

Mary was chosen by God to be His Son’s Mother not because of her having any special traits but purely out of God’s goodness. It is a beautiful story that continues to happen daily we hardly notice nor recognize when God intervenes into our time to bless us not because we deserve to be blessed but simply out of His immense love for us.

This is what we celebrate in the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary: we have a very loving God making a room among us so we may dwell and live in His grace since the very beginning of time.

In the bible and in spirituality, the words room and dwelling actually refer to communion of man and God. In fact, the first letter of God’s name “Yahweh” is shaped like a door of a house in Hebrew writing. At the last supper, Jesus told the Twelve that in His Father’s house are many rooms where He shall go first to prepare one for us all. It is not a literal room but a relationship with God that begins here.

In Genesis, paradise as dwelling place of Adam and Eve was more of their oneness with God they have destroyed with sin.

God truly loves us, never gave up on us when He sent Jesus Christ to redeem us to take us back to Him by renewing that relationship with Him. It had always been part of the divine plan even before the fall of man as reflected by St. Paul in the second reading, “as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him” (Eph. 1:4).

Every December 8 (or 9, like today when the solemnity falls on a Sunday), we hear Luke’s beautiful account of the annunciation of Christ’s birth because it also conveys to us the same message of the Immaculate Conception of Mary who made a room too for God in her self.

The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary (Luke 1:26-27).

The scene preceding this is the annunciation of John’s birth to Zechariah during the Jewish major feast of Yom Kippur or Day of Atonement at the temple in Jerusalem. Observe Luke’s account and we see how God entered through human activities in that scene. Nakisabay, naki-ride on ang Diyos sa takbo ng panahon noon nang ibalita ang pagsilang ni Juan Bautista.

In the Annunciation of the birth of Jesus, it was different: it was God setting everything on His own as we feel from Luke’s solemn reportage. The five major “W’s” of news were there present, namely, who (Mary), what (birth of Jesus), where (Nazareth), when (sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy) and why (Jesus to save the world).

With Mary in Nazareth, the major event was the Annunciation itself of Christ’s birth. It is the entrance of the eternal God into the temporal and finite time of man. That is why we pray the Angelus thrice a day, to sanctify our day as we remember that great event of God becoming human like us in Jesus. (Sadly, so few people pray the Angelus these days, giving more importance to social media, video games and noon time shows or news programs.)

Mary’s Immaculate Conception actually had its fullness in the Annunciation when Mary said yes to God by making a room for Jesus in herself and in her life that led to Christ’s birth and fulfillment of His mission of salvation for us. We see this also in Joseph as narrated by Matthew.

God made everything possible to restore this relationship through Mary who had to be immaculately conceived in order to be the room who would receive His Son Jesus Christ.

Nazareth is the only major place in the New Testament never mentioned in the Old Testament unlike Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus and actually His very root being from the lineage of King David was mentioned many times in the Old Testament.

Nazareth was Mary’s hometown, obscured and unknown like her. After returning from Egypt, the angel told Joseph to bring the Holy Family there to avoid Herod, son and namesake of his father who ordered the massacre of children in Bethlehem upon learning from the Magi the birth of the new king of Israel, Jesus Christ. Though officially from Bethlehem, Jesus grew up in Nazareth that is why the people refused to acknowledge Him as the Messiah who would come from Bethlehem.

Nazareth was so insignificant at that time that it was the butt of jokes in Israel. When one of the Lord’s early disciples Philip told Nathanael (Bartholomew) that they have found “the one about whom Moses wrote in the law” as the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, Nathanael replied, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” (Jn.1:45-46). Jesus did not reprimand Nathanael for his comment because it was true, even praising him as a true Israelite without guile!

*Photo by author, Nazareth Square, Holy Land, may 2019.*

In the first reading, it was God who chose paradise as dwelling of Adam and Eve; in the New Testament, it was God anew who chose the obscured town of Nazareth as the room and dwelling of His Son Jesus Christ, so perfectly jibed with Mary also obscured, so young and perhaps no voice nor say in the Jewish society at that time.

That is how God works, always in silence, often choosing people and places so insignificant in human standards to eventually display His glory like in Mary.

Inasmuch as the Immaculate Conception is God making a room for us to dwell in Him in Mary, God needs also our cooperation and participation in the process. It is not a one-shot deal but an ongoing process, something that continues and most of all, we cultivate and nurture. It is a gift freely given by God, reminding us of our original state and being as clean and pure.

Like Mary, do we have a room for Jesus within us to come especially in this world so preoccupied with man’s pride and achievements? Let us reclaim our original status and pure and clean children of God in making a room for Him in our lives today. Amen.

*Photo by Fr. Gerry Pascual of Iba, Zambales at Einsiedeln Abbey, Einsiedeln, Switzerland, 2019.*

The kindness of God

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, 08 December 2023
Genesis 3:9-15, 20 ><}}}*> Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12 ><}}}*> Luke 1:26-38

God our loving Father,
we praise and thank you
on this Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception
for continuing to do your wondrous works
for our salvation, for our healing
for our good.

You are so kind to us, Father,
despite our sins and turning away from you,
you search us, you call us,
most of all, you still bless us
with your merciful presence in
Jesus Christ.

Teach us to be like Mary,
our Blessed Virgin Mother,
to be open always to your coming,
to your calls, to your grace;
teach us most of all to be
selfless, to be kind too
to your boundless kindness,
O God; many times, we are like
Adam and Eve with so many
alibis, always hiding from you,
evading you, not trusting you.

Teach us, O Lord, 
to imitate Mary to not seek
so many reasons and explanations,
to simply trust in you and say YES
to your will and plans always;
may we always keep in mind like Mary,
your sublime kindness O God
of always inviting us,
asking us,
never imposing on us
to freely choose him
and make Christmas possible
every day.
Amen.

Going back to our roots to make room for God

*Photo by Rev. Fr. Gerry Pascual of Iba, Zambales at Palazzo Borromeo, Isola Bella, Stresa, Italia 2019.*

Until now, many Catholics still get wrong the meaning of the Immaculate Conception of Mary we celebrate today. Very often, they thought it is the Immaculate Conception of Jesus by Mary his Mother.

Wrong. The Immaculate Conception refers to St. Anne’s pregnancy of the Blessed Virgin Mary. According to Ineffabilis Deus issued by Pope Pius IX on December 8, 1854 establishing the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary that had long been held as a tradition in the Church, the Blessed Virgin “in the first instance of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved exempt from all stain of sin.”

Unlike everyone of us stained by original sin, Mary in all eternity was spared from any sin by God himself so that she would be pure and clean to conceive and bear, and eventually gave birth to the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Count the months from December 8 to September 8 the birthday of Mary, you get exactly nine months and perhaps that gives you a clearer picture now of what the Immaculate Conception refers to. But, what should rely merit more of our attention in this great celebration happening also in this merry month of December is the great reality of how God works in wondrous and mysterious ways among us, asking for our cooperation for its realization.

Are we willing to be like the Blessed Virgin Mary to be God’s partner in bringing salvation in this world?

Maybe one of the sources of confusion on the Immaculate Conception is the fact that it is not found in the Scriptures. See how our gospel today actually speaks of the annunciation of the birth of Jesus Christ; however, from this we can also glean Mary’s Immaculate Conception by being referred twice by Luke as a virgin.

The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”
Luke 1:26-28

It is very interesting to keep in mind that the two dogmas about the Blessed Virgin Mary – the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption issued 100 years later – speak of our beginning and end. In the Immaculate Conception, we are reminded of our original status of being pure and sinless until the fall of Adam and Eve we have heard in the first reading. The Assumption on the other hand, tells us of our destiny in the future, of “the resurrection of body and life everlasting”.

Originally before our fall, we have always been clean and sinless. Like Mary in her Immaculate Conception. See how Luke was very specific in using twice the term virgin or parthenos in Greek because at that time like ours, not all maidens were virgin.

Virginity here does not only speak of the physical sense but also of the deeper spiritual meaning of being clean and open to receive, to accept God in our hearts, in our being. A virgin is someone who is pure and clean of heart like in the Beatitude taught by Jesus Christ at his sermon on the mount, “Blessed are the clean of heart for they shall see God” (Mt. 5:8).

How sad that in our highly competitive and materialistic world, the value of virginity is laughed at or even frowned upon like a handicap or a shortcoming, clear sign of how far we have veered away from God and his teachings. Worst, we have limited our views of virginity and purity to the physical level, forgetting to shift to higher level of understanding and appreciation.

To have a clean or pure heart is to be like Jesus Christ, wholly united and obedient to the Father. Jesus himself proclaimed that everything he had said and done were not his but of the Father. That is the purity of the heart of Jesus, deeply one in the Father that he was the first to see God.

And that is also the kind of person our Blessed Mother is, the model disciple of Jesus her Son for having a heart one with his that on her Assumption she truly became the first to see God too!

Recall also how at the wedding feast in Cana, Mary showed us the example of having a clean heart, of “doing whatever he tells you” which she later proved at the foot of the Cross by standing there with Jesus until his death. That is why according to the meditation of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the Risen Lord first appeared to his Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary because she was the first to believe in him totally.

*Photo by Fr. Gerry Pascual of Iba, Zambales at the Cathedral of Barcelona, Spain in 2019.*

On this Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, we are reminded that like her, we are all filled with grace from God in Jesus Christ. St. Paul beautifully expressed this in our second reading today.

Brothers and sisters: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him.
Ephesians 1:3-4

The grace of this Solemnity is the reality how God continues to work his wondrous deeds in this world among us, in us through his Son Jesus Christ. But, all his plans can only be realized when we his children are willing to cooperate with him, to be open like Mary to receive Jesus Christ.

Again, we do not have to take everything in the literal sense. God announces to us his coming every day not through the angel Gabriel but through those people around us, especially those we take for granted like the weak and marginalized, the children we do not take seriously because they are kids or the senior people especially the old and sick we find as burdensome.

Like Mary, we are all full of grace, the Lord is with us. Can we show him in our loving service to one another?

Let us pause on this day to go back to our roots in God, our origin and end in order to have that empty space for his Son Jesus Christ to come and work in us in healing us and our very sick world. Amen.

Joy & mercy in the gift of life

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday, Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, 08 December 2022
Genesis 3:9-15, 20 ><}}}*> Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12 ><}}}*> Luke 1:26-38

The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”
Luke 1:26-28

Praise and glory to you, God our Father
for the gift of life, for the gift of salvation
in Jesus Christ through Mary's Immaculate Conception!
Every joy in the gift of life,
in the gift of every person
is also a gift of your great mercy:
wherever there is life,
there is joy,
there is grace,
there is mercy.

How lovely to keep in mind
that "joy" in Hebrew is "raham, rahamin" -
the same word for "womb" that is why
in describing "joy" to his disciples on the night
before he was arrested, Jesus used the
image of a woman in the pangs of childbirth:
"When a woman is in labor,
she is in anguish because her hour 
has arrived; but when she has given birth
to a child, she no longer remembers the pain
because of her joy that a child has been
into the world" (John 16:21).

So many people are sick at this very moment,
some are awaiting death, some are alone;
many people are hungry, barely surviving
in life every day amid the world's waste
of food and water;
many children are dying too without even
seeing the light because they are seen as
burdens to one's dreams and goals,
thinking only of themselves,
of their rights,
of their body.

On this day as we celebrate
the beginning of the coming of Jesus to us
in the Immaculate Conception of his Mother,
remind us anew that every life is from you,
O God:  what must prevail is your will,
your beautiful plans, not ours;
teach us to trust you like Mary.

Loving Father, make our joy complete
in your Son Jesus Christ;
make us realize and experience
the many spiritual blessings you have
bestowed on us in Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:3);
let us take a rest today,
rest in the real sense like Sabbath
when we return to you in Paradise
obedient not like Adam and Eve; 
most of all, may we recall in the story of Dimas,
we enter Paradise on the Cross with Jesus when 
amid all pains and sufferings,
like the Blessed Mother Mary staying behind,
we may firmly say to you, 
"I am your servant, O Lord.
Be it done unto me
according to your word."
Amen.

The vessels of God’s grace to us

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, 08 December 2021
Genesis 3:9-15, 20 ><}}}*> Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12 ><}}}*> Luke 1:26-38

*Photo by Rev. Fr. Gerry Pascual at Santuario di Greccio, Rieti, Italy in 2019.*

Praise and glory to you,
O God our loving Father
in giving us a Mother in Mary
who gave birth to your Son Jesus
in order to save us from our sins!

Indeed, nothing is impossible 
with you, dear God as you willed
Mary to be conceived immaculately
free from any sin to be pure and
clean to receive Jesus in her womb.

Because of that, she is rightly
called as our "advocate of grace"
and "model of holiness" for through
her, your life and blessings overflowed
upon us in Christ's coming.

And so, we pray to you, Father
in the name of Jesus our Lord
for all the people who have been
channels of your grace to us
like Mary:  our beloved mothers and
fathers who brought us forth into this
world and nurtured us in your love,
still patiently bearing all of life's
beatings and sufferings for our own
good and comfort; we pray for our
siblings, especially our elder brothers
and sisters who have faithfully acted as
our parents too after they were gone
who ensured our safety and well-being,
our sources of joy when life is rough;
we pray for our friends who have remained
faithful by our side through thick and 
thin, still believing in us despite our sins
and failures; we pray for our employers
and superiors and colleagues at work
who give us the chance to earn our
living with dignity and honor so we can 
keep ourselves and loved ones warm and
secured specially in this time of the pandemic.

Most of all, we pray for your Holy Spirit,
dear Father, to always enlighten our
minds and our hearts so that like Mary
we may always be open to Christ's
coming not only to share him with 
others but most of all like Mary his Mother,
we too may be conformed in him
our Savior as you have willed since
the beginning.  Amen.

Mary, advocate of grace and model of holiness

Recently I saw on a Facebook post the photo of American model Kendall Jenner in a swimsuit showing what for many is the “perfect body” in a woman. The photo had reportedly gone viral last year.

What caught my attention was the other photo posted opposite Jenner: that of 19-year-old Alyssa Carson who became the youngest female in history to pass all NASA aerospace tests to train as astronaut for future travel to Mars! The caption said it so well, lamenting the fact how the world gives so much attention to “fashion models” with many going insane imitating their bodies forgetting the more essential like inner beauty and intelligence.

More sad is how we have fixed our human understanding and analogies of a “model” as someone who poses and remains still to be painted or photographed for glossy magazines and giant billboards that people are willing to buy or pay for just to view and let their senses feast on.

It may sound funny but those two photos accompanied me while praying and preparing for our celebration today of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. Sorry, I am not going to show you the link to those photos but wha I want to share with you are the two beautiful expressions depicting Mary as “advocate of grace” and “model of holiness” found in the Preface of today’s Mass (that is the prayer before the Holy, Holy leading to the consecration): “She, the most pure Virgin, was to bring forth a Son, the innocent lamb who would wipe away our offenses; you placed her above all others to be for your people an advocate of grace and a model of holiness.”

*Photo by Fr. Gerry Pascual at Einsiedeln Abbey, Einsiedeln, Switzerland, 2019.*

So often with Marian feasts, many people complain and find it hard to relate with the Blessed Virgin because they find them as celebrations of the privileges of Mary who was so blessed and unique, thinking she’s almost a god, not human anymore whom we cannot imitate and emulate.

That is totally untrue and baseless!

Of course, only she has the distinction of being immaculately conceived, one never stained by sin but, aside from that, Mary is like all of us, so human; and we too can be like her, full of grace and holy!

Brothers and sisters: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him. In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ, in accord with the favor of his will.
Ephesians 1:3-5

Very clear in this reflection by St. Paul in our second reading that our truest destiny is to be holy and without blemish – that is, immaculate. It is the plan of God since the beginning that we all become his people until sin came and destroyed momentarily that divine plan as we have heard in the first reading.

With the coming of Jesus through his sacrifice on the Cross, we were redeemed from sin to become God’s holy people which the same Preface mentions Mary as the “beginning of the Church”. The same prayer reiterates to us our universal calling from God which is to be holy and blameless before God through Jesus Christ. It is very doable and attainable “for nothing is impossible for God” as the Archangel Gabriel told Mary during the Annunciation (Lk.1:37). And Mary is our proof to that!

While it is very true that nothing is impossible for God, today’s celebration of the Immaculate Conception reminds of how God “needs” us to cooperate and participate in his beautiful plans for us like Mary to be his instrument or seedbed for his Divine Word to receive and grow and bloom.

That is the meaning of Mary as “advocate of grace” who became the vessel in the coming of Jesus Christ. See how St. Luke was very clear in narrating Mary’s “supporting” role and place in the plan of God: she remains a human being – not God – like us except she was full of grace, that is, immaculately conceived.

Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end… The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.”
Luke 1:31-33, 35

The Church Fathers used to call Mary as the “aquaeductus ecclesiae” or neck of the Church connecting Jesus the caput or head and us the corpus or body. Mary as an advocate of grace is that vessel of all blessings we now have in Jesus Christ because of her obedience and participation in that plan of God of sending Jesus.

Keep in mind that as advocate of grace, Mary brings us all to Jesus as the one Mediator, not away from him. True devotees of Mary bring others to Jesus not away from him for he alone is the Mediator. A true and authentic devotion to Mary always result in deeper knowledge and intimacy with Jesus and his gospel. Notice this in her apparitions especially at Fatima in 1911 where her messages call us to get closer to Jesus, not her.

Mary continues as our advocate of grace telling us the very same words she had told the servers at Cana to “do whatever he tells you” (Jn.2:5).

Do we do the same? Or, mislead others into putting Mary at par or even above Jesus her Son and Lord? In this time of pandemic, are we like Mary as an advocate of grace, a vessel and instrument of blessings to others or do we grab every credit of “charity” and “kindness”, grandstanding for more media mileage of “likes” and “followers” to be viral and trending?

*Photo by Fr. Gerry Pascual at the Cathedral of Barcelona, Spain in 2019.*

From her being an “advocate of grace”, Mary thus becomes our “model of holiness” too as she reminds us of God’s original plan for us, created in his image and likeness destroyed by sin with the fall of Adam and Eve. See how God immediately promised salvation through the woman fulfilled in Mary as he reprimanded the serpent in tempting Eve:

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will strike you at your head, while you strike at his heel.”
Genesis 3:15

Because of her being the advocate of grace of God by giving birth to Jesus, Mary stands before us as the perfect reminder of Christ’s work of purification and recovery of the image of God in us. Described as the “perfect disciple” and “doer of the Word”, Mary had shown us in her very life which continues to this day in her intercessions and apparitions how discipleship is a life-long process and commitment of holiness. From giving birth to Jesus to his dying on the Cross until his burial, Mary had always been with Jesus that on Easter, it was to her that the Risen Lord first appeared because she was the first to believe totally in him.

At the Pentecost, Mary was with the Apostles awaiting the coming of the Holy Spirit that became the coming out party of the Church. In her life, Mary is the model of holiness because she keeps on working with us and in us, guiding us in following Jesus our Lord and Master so that we might be “conformed to his image” (Rom. 8:29).

Holiness is not being sinless but being filled with God who is all-holy, being like Jesus Christ. Mary showed us the way to holiness is being humble before God, seeing herself as the “handmaid” or servant of the Lord.

If there is one thing the world needs now so badly in this time of the pandemic, it is holiness. Before the pandemic came, mankind was so filled with self, so arrogant and proud acting like god, manipulating everything.

How ironic that a microscopic virus with the simplest signs similar to the common colds made the world stood still for some time, reminding us that there is a God all-powerful who is in control of everything.

Through Mary, may this Solemnity of her Immaculate Conception lead us back to God to recover in us his image and likeness, cleansed and purified of our blemishes and wrinkles of sin by having an enlightened devotion to her, the servant of the Lord par excellence. Amen.

A blessed day to everyone!

Silent listening

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday, Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the BVM, 08 December 2020
Genesis 3:9-15, 20 >><)))*> Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12 >><)))*> Luke 1:26-38

Photo by author, Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, Malolos City, 08 December 2019.

Glory and praise to you, O God our loving Father! In your eternal love you have desired to restore us to our original state in you as pure and holy by sending us Jesus Christ our Savior who was born by his immaculately conceived Mother, Mary of Nazareth.

Brothers and sisters: Blessed by the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him.
Ephesians 1:3-4

On this most joyous day of Mary’s Immaculate Conception, I pray only for one thing: that like the Blessed Virgin Mary we may recover the value of silent listening in our world that has become so noisy. In the streets, in vehicles, in homes and everywhere including houses of worship, people are always plugged into something they only want to listen to. Worst, many people have come to refuse and even fear unconsciously silent listening.

How amazing, O Lord, that “silent” and “listen” are both an anagram of exactly same letters for these words perfectly go together: we need to be silent in order to be able to listen. And when we learn to listen in silence, then we become trusting and obedient too like Mary, something we need so badly these days of too much materialism and individualism.

How unfortunate and tragic, O Lord, that in our world today, we care to listen not only to the loudest sounds we can hear but ultimately to voices that would please and massage our ego like in the story of the fall of man.

Silent listening is heeding your call to enter into a communion in you when we have to lose ourselves and trust you entirely like Mary. She was willing to make time for you, to leave everything behind in order to silently listen to the angel announcing the birth of Jesus.

Forgive us when we refuse to “make” time of silent listening for you and even our neighbors because we are afraid of silence in the first place; we are so afraid to hear our true selves speaking, that we are all your servants, that we are mortals, that we are limited, that we need you inasmuch as we need others too. We prefer the noises of the world that make us feel we are in control of everything, even of our very selves when we are not.

We think that silence is like waiting when we have to be empty, not realizing that silence is a fullness when we are able to listen to so many voices and sounds, even the most faintest we disregard but often most valuable like your voice deep within our hearts that asks us to do what is good and avoid what is evil; the feeble voice of our true selves desiring meaning; and, the silent cries of the voiceless among us, of those living in the margins, the poor, the sick, the old, and the children.

In silent listening, Mary was able to grasp so much in your fullness that she gave her fiat after listening to the good news from the Archangel Gabriel:

Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”
Luke 1:38

As we prepare for your Second Coming, dear Jesus in this season of Advent, give us the grace of silent listening like Mary so we become more sensitive of your presence within us and especially among the poor and suffering. Amen.