In homilies given on 8 December 2008 and 8 December 2009, the founder of the Heralds of the Gospel, Monsignor John Scognamiglio Clá Dias, EP, demonstrates that the Immaculate Conception, although not the greatest privilege of Our Lady, is rather its greatest grace , and constitutes a triumph of God over the devil and a triumph of the Church. Triumph that we too can participate in.
Watch the excerpt:
Following are the very words of Monsignor John Claudia:
Today [1]the Church celebrates the feast of the Immaculate Conception. The essential privilege of Our Lady, around which all other privileges revolve, is Divine Motherhood. And this privilege is unsurpassed.
However, while it is the greatest privilege is not the greatest grace. The greatest grace of Our Lady is that of the Immaculate Conception. Being conceived without sin and already holy, holy, this is the greatest gift in the line of grace that has been given to Her.
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The whole victory of Our Lo[2]rd is made in no human creature, no human creature, until the moment our Lady appears. Our Lady is the victory and triumph of Our Lord Jesus Christ over Satan and on sin; for He manifests all the power he has to prevent sin from wreaking havoc on humanity. And in her, therefore, He triumphs entirely. It is the triumph of Our Lord.
It is the triumph of Our Lady because, moreover, She is chosen as the Mother of God. And because it is chosen for The Mother of God no longer touches Her or the effects of original sin touch her.
And it is a triumph for the Church, because the Church has a human creature — pure human creature! — who is part of the Church, and who, by becoming Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ, she becomes a Mother of the Church, and who is exempt from all the stain… it is a triumph for the Church!
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And established this feast in the midst o[3]f Advent , it has all pomp, suspend the laws of Advent, enter the instruments, enter the joys, enter the paraments and even The Glory and the Creed are felt in this Mass. And it's understandable, because "maria nunquam satis[sobre Maria, nunca bastará]". And just as we never feel happy to hear about her, we also never feel happy to glorify her.
We are children of Mary, all of us, and we are children of the Immaculate. Why is that? Because it is a title really full of light and at the same time full of glory and full of gratitude on our part. Triumph of Our Lord Jesus Christ, triumph of Mary, triumph of the Church.
But there is a triumph that we expect a lot, it is the triumph of Sapiencial and Immaculate Heart. This triumph She promised in Fatima. For for this to take place, it must be triumphed, not only with regard to the Immaculate Conception of her, but She triumphs in infusing in us something of this imaculability of her and that thus we, purged and purified, therefore, of our miseries all, may be assisted by her Husband through her and so let us be filled with God, full of the Holy Spirit, and enthusiastic and purified instruments in her hands for this triumph of the Sapiencial and Immaculate Heart of her.
Let us ask Her for a ray that is of this Immaculate Conception of Her and the fact that it is entirely pure, entirely virginal, entirely holy since the moment of her first appearance in existence, that a ray of sunshine that beats today upon these paintings all here, in these arches, etc., be the symbol of the ray that She can make feel at the bottom of each of us' soul. Ray of her complete purity, of complete incontamination and moral integrity, fullness, triumph of the Church, triumph of her, and triumph of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
May this triumph lie upon us in some rays and purify us entirely!
[1]Homily excerpt of December 8, 2008.
[2]Homily excerpt of December 8, 2009.
Homily excerpt of December 8, 2008.