USA has been placed under the protection of the Immaculate Conception. Truth of the Spirit presents “Mary, Mother of God, Ever Virgin, Immaculate Conception” to give insight on the history of consecration to Mary as patroness. Host is Patti Brunner. For audio & video links please continue reading.
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Our family celebrates the 4th of July with flags, fireworks, faith and food! Despite all the problems that arise in the United States, we continue to thank God for the many blessings given to the “one nation under God” that is consecrated to the Blessed Mother, the Immaculate Conception.
Welcome to Truth of the Spirit. I am your host Patti Brunner. Today we continue our Tenets of Truth series as we discuss “Mary, Mother of God, Ever Virgin, Immaculate Conception”.
A few people are confused about the title of “Immaculate Conception” and mix it up with the Incarnation. The Incarnation of Jesus within the womb of Mary took place at the Annunciation. The Immaculate Conception took place when Mary was conceived in her own mother’s womb. The rest of us are conceived and born with Original Sin.
The patroness of all the Americas is Our Lady of Guadalupe who appeared in the Americas in 1531. Shortly after the birth of the United States, the Holy See established the Diocese of Baltimore, which included all of the original thirteen colonies as its territory. Its first bishop, Bishop John Carroll, was consecrated on August 15, 1791, the Solemnity of the Assumption of our Lady. In his first Pastoral Letter on May 28, 1792 to his diocese—the entire United States at that time—he announced our Blessed Mother as special patroness of the Diocese. He wrote: “Having chosen her the special patroness of this Diocese, you are placed, of course, under her powerful protection; and it becomes your duty to be careful to deserve its continuance by a zealous imitation of her virtues and a reliance on her motherly superintendence.”[i]
“In 1846, eight years before the dogma of the Immaculate Conception was solemnly defined by Pope Pius IX, the bishops of the United States declared the Immaculate Conception to be the Patroness of the United States of America.” [ii] At the dedication of the National Shrine of The Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., on November 20, 1959, Cardinal Patrick A. O’Boyle, Archbishop of Washington, again consecrated the United States to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
During Pope John Paul II’s first Pastoral Visit to the United States in 1979 the Pope made an Act of Entrustment to the Blessed Virgin, on October 7 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. He recited, “The bishops of the Church in the United States have chosen you in the mystery of your Immaculate Conception as the Patroness of the People of God in this country. May the hope enclosed in this mystery prevail over sin and may it be shared among all the sons and daughters of America and throughout the human family. In a period during which the struggle between good and evil, between the prince of darkness and the Father of light and of evangelical love is becoming greater, may the light of your Immaculate Conception show to all the way of grace and salvation. Amen.”[iii]
Consecration of the United States to the Immaculate Heart of Mary was renewed by the U.S. bishops on Nov. 11, 2006 in Baltimore, Maryland, and again on March 25, 2022, the feast of the Annunciation, in conjunction with the latest consecration of Russia, the Ukraine, and the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
You may be wondering why the leaders of the Catholic faith made such efforts to put the United States under the protection of a woman. She is not an ordinary woman! Mary is the Mother of God! Recall in the Creed that Jesus “by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.” We believe that Jesus came forth from God and assumed human form as he was conceived through the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary. In very simple logic: Jesus is God. Mary is the Mother of Jesus. Mary is the Mother of God.
We are reminded of her role of protection in the ancient icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help as the child Jesus in the arms of Mother Mary holds her finger while angels hold the frightening implements of the crucifixion. We would do well to fly to her protection in these days so turbulent.
Recently the Lord told me, “Mary is given that you might see the life to which all are called. Her fiat was not made easier by the “Immaculate Conception”; the gift of freewill allowed her to choose in her humanity—the same perfectly created humanity of Adam and Eve. The grace of being conceived without sin was twofold—it allowed Mary to be a spotless vessel, the human womb for the Son of God to dwell within; the Ark of the Covenant and human tabernacle.
In North Little Rock, Arkansas, my family has attended a parish named “Immaculate Conception” but most people used the initials, “I.C”. I C! Perhaps that has something to consider. I see! As we look to Mary we ‘see’ great love manifested. We see humility, obedience and great faith. We see the power of God. We see a role model. Through her Assumption we are given great hope of attaining eternal life. There are so many apparitions of the appearance of Mary coming to warn us and to beg us to repent and to pray. I C—there is power of praying the rosary for our children. I C—Our Lady is such a role model to imitate. I C—we are given an ideal of who we were created to be before original sin shifted our actions deeper towards selfishness and sin.
Since the earliest days of the Church, Catholics have believed that Mary was preserved from Original Sin from the moment of her conception. When Christopher Columbus came over, his flagship was named in honor of the Immaculate Conception. [iv]
[CCC #491] “Through the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary, “full of grace” through God, 134 was redeemed from the moment of her conception. That is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception confesses, as Pope Pius IX proclaimed in 1854: “The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Saviour of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin.” 135”
Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph #492 says, “The “splendour of an entirely unique holiness” by which Mary is “enriched from the first instant of her conception” comes wholly from Christ: she is “redeemed, in a more exalted fashion, by reason of the merits of her Son”. 136 The Father blessed Mary more than any other created person “in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” and chose her “in Christ before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before him in love”. 137”
The CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA says this about the Immaculate Conception: “The immunity from original sin was given to Mary by a singular exemption from a universal law through the same merits of Christ, by which other men are cleansed from sin by baptism. Mary needed the redeeming Saviour to obtain this exemption, and to be delivered from the universal necessity and debt of being subject to original sin. The person of Mary, in consequence of her origin from Adam, should have been subject to sin, but, being the new Eve who was to be the mother of the new Adam, she was, by the eternal counsel of God and by the merits of Christ, withdrawn from the general law of original sin. Her redemption was the very masterpiece of Christ’s redeeming wisdom. He is a greater redeemer who pays the debt that it may not be incurred than he who pays after it has fallen on the debtor. Such is the meaning of the term “Immaculate Conception.”[v]
The Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph #972 teaches, “… In Mary we contemplate what the Church already is in her mystery on her own “pilgrimage of faith,” and what she will be in the homeland at the end of her journey. There, “in the glory of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity,” “in the communion of all the saints,” 518 the Church is awaited by the one she venerates as Mother of her Lord and as her own mother.
“In the meantime the Mother of Jesus, in the glory which she possesses in body and soul in heaven, is the image and beginning of the Church as it is to be perfected in the world to come. Likewise she shines forth on earth until the day of the Lord shall come, a sign of certain hope and comfort to the pilgrim People of God. 519”
Have you ever wondered if you were living the life to which you are called? It’s not too late. Choose the life that will lead you towards eternity in heaven. Through each reception of the True Presence of God in Holy Communion, while in the state of grace, we join with Mary to become a human tabernacle of the Lord Jesus.
Besides Mary’s title of Immaculate Conception, we profess in our Creed that Mary is “ever Virgin”. Some of our separated brothers and sisters believe in the virgin birth of Jesus but then suggest Mary had other children. The term “brother” and “sister” in the New Testament was used to describe cousins, relatives, and relationships beyond kinship[vi].
The Lord explained to me, “The virginity of Mary is not a call to avoidance of marital physical relations. Her virginity proved complete faithfulness to the Spouse, the Holy Spirit. The promise of God, “I will espouse you” is fulfilled. She becomes the role model for all the Church who turns to her Son Jesus as our Bridegroom which is made possible by the Communion of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us connected us to God intimately.”
All of mankind is called to be faithful to the Lord. Hosea the Prophet spoke of this to the unfaithful Israelites in the promise given by the Lord, Hosea Chapter 2 starting with verse 21, he writes what the Lord tells him: “21 I will betroth you to me forever: I will betroth you to me with justice and with judgment, with loyalty and with compassion; 22 I will betroth you to me with fidelity, and you shall know the LORD.” As the Holy Spirit overshadowed the Blessed Virgin Mary a spousal relationship was forged and the fruit[vii] was Jesus, the Son of God.
We can learn from the Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph #501: “Jesus is Mary’s only son, but her spiritual motherhood extends to all men whom indeed he came to save: “The Son whom she brought forth is he whom God placed as the first-born among many brethren, that is, the faithful in whose generation and formation she co-operates with a mother’s love.” 160”
“Mary’s virginal motherhood is in God’s plan: [#502] The eyes of faith can discover in the context of the whole of Revelation the mysterious reasons why God in his saving plan wanted his Son to be born of a virgin. These reasons touch both on the person of Christ and his redemptive mission, and on the welcome Mary gave that mission on behalf of all men.”
[#503] “Mary’s virginity manifests God’s absolute initiative in the Incarnation. Jesus has only God as Father. “He was never estranged from the Father because of the human nature which he assumed. . . He is naturally Son of the Father as to his divinity and naturally son of his mother as to his humanity, but properly Son of the Father in both natures.” 161”
[#505] “By his virginal conception, Jesus, the New Adam, ushers in the new birth of children adopted in the Holy Spirit through faith. “How can this be?” 165 Participation in the divine life arises “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God”. 166 The acceptance of this life is virginal because it is entirely the Spirit’s gift to man. The spousal character of the human vocation in relation to God 167 is fulfilled perfectly in Mary’s virginal motherhood.”
[#507] “At once virgin and mother, Mary is the symbol and the most perfect realization of the Church: “the Church indeed. . . by receiving the word of God in faith becomes herself a mother. By preaching and Baptism she brings forth sons, who are conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of God, to a new and immortal life. She herself is a virgin, who keeps in its entirety and purity the faith she pledged to her spouse.” 170”
“The feasts of Immaculate Conception and the Assumption point out the truth as the Church—Mother Church—celebrates these truths in its liturgy.” The Immaculate Conception solemnity is celebrated on December 8th and the Assumption, the celebration of Mary assumed into heaven, is celebrated on August 15th.
You have been listening to Truth of the Spirit and “Mary, Mother of God, Ever Virgin, Immaculate Conception. You can access the blog of this episode at PatriarchMinistries.com/219. We invite you to visit our free YouTube channel for other episodes about the Blessed Mother and other episodes of the Tenets of Truth series. And then come back for more. With the Holy Spirit, there’s always more! Amen.
[i] Bishop John Carroll Pastoral Letter dated May 28, 1792. Our Lady as Patroness of the United States under her title of the Immaculate Conception – Catholic Philly 4 December 2008
[ii] Immaculate Conception, the Patroness of the United States (americancatholichistory.org)
[iii] Our Lady as Patroness of the United States under her title of the Immaculate Conception – Catholic Philly 4 December 2008
[iv] Immaculate Conception, the Patroness of the United States (americancatholichistory.org)
[v] CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Immaculate Conception (newadvent.org)
[vi] Catechism of the Catholic Church # 500 Against this doctrine the objection is sometimes raised that the Bible mentions brothers and sisters of Jesus. 157 The Church has always understood these passages as not referring to other children of the Virgin Mary. In fact James and Joseph, “brothers of Jesus”, are the sons of another Mary, a disciple of Christ, whom St. Matthew significantly calls “the other Mary”. 158 They are close relations of Jesus, according to an Old Testament expression. 159
[vii] Catechism of the Catholic Church #723 In Mary, the Holy Spirit fulfills the plan of the Father’s loving goodness. Through the Holy Spirit, the Virgin conceives and gives birth to the Son of God. By the Holy Spirit’s power and her faith, her virginity became uniquely fruitful. 105 [105 Cf. Lk 1:26-38; Rom 4:18-21; Gal 4:26-28].
