Our Blessed Mother is recognized and celebrated in a special way on Dec. 8, 2024, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.
Since Dec. 8 falls on a Sunday, and because all Sundays take precedence, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception this year will be celebrated on Monday. Dec. 9. Please note that the celebration of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is a Holy Day of Obligation, due to a recent clarification by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
“Born without Original Sin, and chosen by God to bear His only Son, Mary plays an essential role in Christmas, and in our salvation,” Bishop Frank J. Dewane said in a letter to the faithful. “Her Motherhood made possible a pathway to Heaven for all the faithful, and She still intercedes on our behalf, drawing the faithful closer to Jesus, and to God, through prayer.”
One of the most often confused Doctrines of the Catholic Church, many people, including Catholics, mistakenly think that the Immaculate Conception refers to the conception of Christ through the action of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. That event is in fact celebrated as the Feast of the Annunciation of the Lord on March 25, nine months before Christmas.
The Immaculate Conception, which is celebrated on Dec. 8, refers to the condition that the Blessed Virgin Mary was free from Original Sin from the very moment of her conception in the womb of her mother, St. Anne. The Church celebrates the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Sept. 8, nine months after the Immaculate Conception.
The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception dates back centuries, declared as doctrine by Pope Pius IX on Dec. 8, 1854.
Pope Francis said with great joy that on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception the “Church contemplates the one who is ‘full of grace’… This is how God saw her from the very beginning in His plan of love. He saw her as beautiful, full of grace… Mary the Immaculate is inscribed in God’s plan; she is the fruit of the love of God that saves the world.”
On the Solemnity Pope Francis said the faithful must take time to contemplate “our beautiful Immaculate Mother; in Her we also recognize our truest destiny, our deepest vocation: being loved, being transformed by love, and being transformed by the beauty of God… Let Her look at us so that we can learn how to be more humble, and more courageous too in following the Word of God, in welcoming the tender embrace of Jesus his Son, an embrace that gives us life, hope and peace.”
Holy Days of Obligation
According to Church doctrine, Holy Days of Obligation are feast days on which Catholics are required to attend Mass and to avoid (to the extent that they are able) servile work. Holy Days of Obligation during Advent and Christmas seasons include:
the Solemnity of Immaculate Conception (Dec. 9), Christmas (Dec. 25), and the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God, (Jan. 1, 2025).
