Feast of the Immaculate Conception December 8, 2025 – Sister Veronica Fatoyinbo, SNDdeN Luke 1: 26-38 Have you ever noticed how much care goes into preparing for something important? When we host a special guest, we clean the house, set the table, and make sure everything is in order. If such care is taken for human guests, how much more would God prepare a home for His own Son? Today’s feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary is precisely about God’s preparation. Long before the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary in Nazareth, God was already at work in her life. From the first moment of her conception, Mary was preserved from original sin so that she might be a pure dwelling place for the Word made flesh. The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary invites us to pause and contemplate the beauty of God’s saving plan, a plan that began long before Mary uttered her “yes” to the angel Gabriel. This feast is not primarily about the conception of Jesus, as many sometimes think, but about Mary herself—conceived without the stain of original sin, preserved by God’s special grace from the very beginning […]