The Immaculate Conception
Feast day: December 8
The Blessed Virgin Mary, the Immaculate Conception, Mother of God and our Mother (08/12)
Who is Mary?
Mary was a young Jewish woman from the village of Nazareth, whom God chose to be the Mother of his Son made man, Jesus. That is why she is the Mother of God. On the cross, Jesus also gave her to us, so she is the Mother of everyone too. This card celebrates the Immaculate Conception.
Life story
One day in Nazareth, the angel Gabriel greeted her: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!” (Lk 1:28). The angel told her that she would have a son and name him Jesus. She did not understand everything, but she answered: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38).
She gave birth to Jesus in Bethlehem and laid him in a manger (cf. Lk 2:7), then raised him in Nazareth together with Saint Joseph. At the wedding at Cana, when she saw that the wine had run out, she said to the servants: “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5). When Jesus was crucified, she stood at the foot of the cross. Jesus said to the disciple he loved: “Behold, your mother!” (Jn 19:27). After Jesus went up to heaven, she prayed with the Apostles, waiting for the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14).
To prepare her to be the Mother of the Savior, God kept her free from original sin from the moment she was conceived in her own mother’s womb, thanks to the merits of her Son, Jesus. On 8 December 1854, Pope Pius IX declared this a dogma of the faith.
The picture on this card is like the Miraculous Medal. In 1830, in Paris, Our Lady appeared to Sister Catherine Labouré and asked her to have a medal made showing Mary standing on a globe, with light shining from her hands. In 1858, in Lourdes, she introduced herself to the young girl Bernadette: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” The Church recognizes these apparitions as worthy of belief, but they are not part of the Bible.
Why is Mary holy?
Mary was full of grace, and all her life she welcomed that grace with faith and obedience. She always listened to God’s Word, kept it in her heart and lived by it. She never kept Jesus for herself, but always led everyone to him. That is why the Church honors her above all the saints.
A lesson for you
- When your parents or teachers remind you to do something good, cheerfully say “yes” like Mary.
- Keep your heart pure: in what you say, what you do and even what you watch.
- Every day, pray a Hail Mary and ask Mary to lead you closer to Jesus.
Identifying marks
- A ring of twelve stars around her head: it recalls the woman with “a crown of twelve stars” on her head in the Book of Revelation (cf. Rv 12:1).
- A serpent with an apple in its mouth, crushed under her feet: the serpent is the devil, and the apple is how paintings show the forbidden fruit; Mary never had any sin, and God promised that the offspring of the woman would defeat the serpent (cf. Gn 3:15).
- Open hands shining with rays of light: the image on the Miraculous Medal; the rays are the graces Mary asks God to give to those who ask her.
- Standing on a globe and a crescent moon: she is the Mother of everyone all over the earth.
- A white lily (*): a sign of her perfect purity.
(*) Only in some pictures and statues.
The text on this page is the saint card in the Catholic Information app, word for word.
Collect this card and read more about the saints in the app