VATICAN CITY — Mary’s Immaculate Conception offers a glimpse of the promised life for all Christians who open their hearts to God and his grace, Pope Francis said.
Addressing pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square on the feast of the Immaculate Conception Dec. 8, the pope said the grace “to be totally free from sin” is a gift from God and the “fullness of holiness” given to Mary from the beginning.
“And what Mary had from the beginning will be ours in the end, after we have passed through the purifying ‘bath’ of God’s grace. What opens the gates of paradise to us is God’s grace, received by us with faithfulness,” he said.
In his main talk, the pope reflected on the Marian feast day that “celebrates one of the wonders of the story of salvation.”
“Even she was saved by Christ, but in an extraordinary way,” the pope said, because God wanted the mother of his son to “not be touched by the misery of sin from the moment of her conception.”
Pope Francis urged the faithful to “seize the day” by saying “‘no’ to evil and ‘yes’ to God” and “to once and for all stop thinking of ourselves, dragging ourselves into hypocrisy and to face our own reality as we are.”
“And this, for us, is the path for becoming ‘holy and immaculate,’” the pope said. “The uncontaminated beauty of our mother is incomparable, but at the same time it attracts us. Let us entrust ourselves to her and say ‘no’ to sin and ‘yes’ to grace once and for all.”
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