"Who is she that comes forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in battle array?" - Song of Songs 6:10
How many of you have ever been to the Lourdes? Lourdes is a mystical place, at least to me. I still remember it was 1994, that was my first pilgrimage to Europe, Lourdes happened to be one of the places we visited. The moment we arrived, I loved the place immediately, there is a Chinese proverb says “ No need to have a very high mountain, but if God is there, the place will be Holy.” Lourdes gave me the same impression. I felt so peaceful and joy when I jogged in the early morning, participated the processing in the afternoon. Attended the mass and meditated before the Grotto. That was my first time to learn how to recite the rosary in Lourdes. I was like one year old child, uttering my voice, slowly to connect the creed, our father, hail Mary, glory be, to the hail holy queen.
During my visit, I was so fervent and I even willing to stay in the grotto for entire night instead of going back to the hotel. Ten years later I went back again, this time I stayed only in Lourdes for 10 days and I offered my whole family to our Lady of Immaculate Conception with the seminaries from New Jersey they happened to visit at the place in the same dead winter. Lourdes, the Bernadette, Our Lady, the Immaculate Conception, they occupied my memory and I still can feel the fragrance of the place.
I was the only Catholics in my family, but back to 2004, my mom was very ill, my wife suggested me to ask my mom if she could consider to become a Catholic, I took the suggestion and asked her, and my mom opened her mouth, “What? Catholic? I like Catholic.” and you all know the result, she baptized shortly after, and her baptismal name was Bernadette. Our dearest heavenly mother had listened to the family prayer, and my mom went to heaven peacefully a month later.
On Dec. 8, 1854, Pope Pius IX solemnly proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception: He said:"... We declare, pronounce and define that the doctrine which asserts that the Blessed Virgin Mary, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God, and in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, was preserved free from every stain of original sin is a doctrine revealed by God and, for this reason, must be firmly and constantly believed by all the faithful." Mother Mary appeared to Bernadette, a 14 years old country girl 4 years later on Feb. 11, 1858 in Lourdes, she has not idea of what means of the Immaculate Conception. Yet, from that moment and on, Lourdes became one of the greatest place on earth for the pilgrimage because of our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. I look at myself, how blessed I am to be able to visit that place more than once in my life time.
The Immaculate Conception is the conception of the Virgin Mary free from original sin by virtue of the merits of her son Jesus Christ. The word of freedom "from every stain of original sin" entails as a positive consequence the total freedom from all sin as well as the proclamation of Mary's perfect holiness. This proclamation expresses the essential datum of faith. Sharing the same faith, we all came to baptize to become Catholics, the moment we receive the baptism, we are all cleansed from all the sins, but the contaminated world never stops to tempt us and tries to make us to fall. Yet, as the legionaries, we are called to look at the center of our faith and works, Mary, the Immaculate Conception, who preserved without a stain of sin for God Himself to become the son of man. Therefore, follow the Immaculate Conception, shouldn’t we, the legionaries, also ask for Mary to give us her grace to battle the sins on us and around us? Shouldn’t we work on to remove the sins of our own, and to sin no more? We are set in battle array now, the battle against all evils and sins, so let’s get up and stay together, follow our Lady, Mary, the immaculate Conception, fight against the sins of our own and the sins of all evils.
Source: Catechism #1852-1876; Wikipedia; Legion of Mary handbook.