During the Season of Advent, we will have a special Mass at 6:30 am on December 6, 13 and 20. This Mass is traditionally known as the Rorate Caeli Mass, in honor of the Blessed Mother. These Masses will be bilingual (Latin and English) and will be celebrated “Ad Orientem,” meaning that the priest will face the same direction as the congregation.

This Advent, we are invited to countdown the days to Christmas by reading the Gospel daily.

The Diocese has prepared a list of daily Gospel readings to help us prepare our hearts as we celebrate and remember the coming and birth Jesus. The readings begin on November 30 and end on Epiphany January 4, 2026.

Dear Friends in Christ,

Happy New Year!! We Catholics can say this to one another this weekend since we begin a new liturgical year here at the First Sunday of Advent. This season is a blessed time for us to prepare for the coming of Jesus into our lives, not only at the celebration of Christmas, but in each and every day. In this season, we are encouraged to practice works of penance through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, not as intensely as during Lent, but in small ways to prepare our souls for Jesus. 

In this season of Advent, I invite us to reflect upon one of the greatest gifts that God has given to the human race after his Son, namely, our Blessed Mother, Mary. She who remained faithful to God’s will throughout her life gives us much hope for us who regularly fail to remain faithful to God because of our tendency towards sin. Over the next number of weeks, we will discuss the four major dogmas of Mary within our Faith, and we will see how she is the best person to prepare us for the coming of Jesus, her Son. 

This week, I would like to focus our attention on the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. This doctrine of the faith, which we will celebrate in just over one week on December 8th, points to the fact that Mary was preserved from all stain of original sin from the very moment of her conception in the womb of St. Anne by a special grace given by God through the merits of Jesus’ death on the cross. I know that this can be difficult to understand, so to put it more succinctly, Mary was created without sin, and there was never a moment that she fell into sin because of the grace from her Son, Jesus. 

Many of our Protestant brothers and sisters have difficulty in understanding this facet of our faith because the term, “Immaculate Conception,” is never said in Sacred Scripture. However, when we look at the moment of the Annunciation, we see an indication of the Immaculate Conception in the greeting of the Angel Gabriel to Mary. We see that Gabriel calls Mary, “Full of grace” (κεχαριτωμένη in Greek), a title that is uniquely used in reference to her. If Mary is “Full of Grace,” then logically there is no way for sin to be within her soul since there is no room for anything besides God’s divine light. This understanding of Mary’s unique gift from God prompted Pope Pius IX to formally define this doctrine in 1854. 

Why is Mary’s Immaculate Conception so important for us Catholics? As we see the increased effects of sin in our culture around us, Mary reminds us that God wishes to fill us with his Grace. We were not born into this world with the same gift of being preserved from all sin, but we look forward in great hope to our rebirth into eternal life in Heaven where we will be preserved from sin. Mary, our mother, is the one who prepares us best to see her Son in each day, and one day after our death.

May Christ’s Peace be with you,

Fr. Briggs