Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception: Holy Day of Obligation

Because the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, a Holy Day of Obligation, falls on a Sunday, the Holy Day Obligation moves to Monday, Dec. 9.

Holy Day Masses include:

Monday, Dec. 9 at 6:30a.m., 8:30a.m., 12 noon and 7p.m.

Each Dec. 8, the Church celebrates the event of Mary’s Immaculate Conception. God shielded Mary from original sin. She did not inherit, as we did at our conception, the transgression of our parents, Adam and Eve. The scriptural foundation of the Immaculate Conception is located in Genesis 3:15 (“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed”) and the Gospel of St. Luke (“Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!” – Lk 1;28).

The Church understands that it is right and just that the Savior of the universe, Jesus Christ, would have for his mother one who was entirely pure and devoid of sin. Mary was preserved from the stain of all sin not by her own merit but by the work of Jesus who “really redeemed His Mother, since it was by virtue of His merits that she was preserved by God immune from all stain of Original Sin.” (Pope Pius XII)