I am sorry that this message it late.  I should have posted it 2-3 days ago.  I still feel that it is worthy of putting on here though.

I hope everyone is enjoying and celebrating a truly blessed and meaningful Advent.  There is another special day that we as Catholics celebrate during this time and I hope it doesn't get lost in the season.  This is the Immaculate Conception.  Dec 8. First I want to clearly explain what this day is.  Many people (Catholic & others) misinterpret this holy day to mean the conception of Christ in Mary's womb.  This is not the case.  This day marks the day that Mary was conceived in her mothers womb.  Do you know who her mother was?  St. Ann.  The reason we say Immaculate Conception is because she was conceived without sin.  We know and believe this because of many reasons but simply put - would God place His only son in a body corrupted by sin?  Would He build Him a temple that was less than perfect?  Of course not!  And that's what Mary is - the temple of Christ.

Many other religions misunderstand the Catholic Churches' beliefs about Mary.  I would like to clear some of this up.  First of all we do not nor have we ever worshipped Mary.  We do however give her all the honor deserving her as the Mother of Christ our Lord.  I had a revelation about Mary this year that I would like to share with you.  Some people believe when we pray the “Hail Mary” that this is worshiping her.  Actually we are only doing what Christ Himself told us to do.   Christ Himself taught us the Lords prayer.  The Lords prayer says “Thy will be done in on earth as it is in heaven.”  We are not privilege to what heaven is like or what His will in heaven is but we have been given a glimpse of this.  We know without a doubt that Mary is honored in heaven.  How do we know this?  God sent his angel Gabriel down from heaven with the words “Hail Mary…the Lord is with thee, blessed are thou amongst women…”  Luke 1:28  The angels are in heaven and if they are to honor Mary in this way then we are to do “on earth as it is in heaven”  So we know one way to do “Thy will on earth as it is in heaven” is to honor Mary.  I didn’t do any tap dancing here.  I just put 2 and 2 together and got the Hail Mary.  The words from this prayer come straight from the bible except for the last part where we simply ask Mary to pray for us.  If we are sick or in need of something we don’t hesitate to ask our friend or neighbor to pray for us.  Doesn’t it make sense to go straight to His mother and ask her to pray for us.   He can’t/won’t refuse her.  Read the story of the wedding at Cana.

Christ is the foundation of our Faith, the foundation of our Church.  Mary is the mother of Christ, so Mary is the mother of our Church.  We are the church, so Mary is our mother.  This is why she is so special to us and why we honor her so much.   If this has struck a note of truth with you then try saying the rosary.  The rosary is a set of prayers put together to worship, praise, love and honor Christ through the love of His mother.    If you would like to know more about the rosary please feel free to contact me and I will guide you through it.   You will receive abundant graces through this special prayer.