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By celebrating “one of the wonders of the history of salvation”, Francis said in the Angelus on Tuesday (8), we understand that the human being is created by God for holiness, like the Virgin Mary, free from sin and full of grace. On the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, the Pope has invited us to follow a path of conversion from today, being open to grace: “Let us say ‘no’ to sin and ‘yes’ to grace” once and for all.
Andressa Collet – Vatican News
On the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, Pope Francis performed a private act of devotion to Mary in the Spanish Square, in Rome, and prayed the Marian Angelus prayer to the faithful and pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square, despite a cold, rainy fall day. in the Eternal Capital.
The search for holiness
In the speech that preceded the prayer, the Pontiff referred to the liturgical feast of December 8, in which the Church “celebrates one of the wonders of the history of salvation”, which is that of the Virgin Mary, ” saved by Christ, but in an absolutely absolutely extraordinary way ”, because God wanted her to“ not allow herself to be touched by the misery of sin ”. Thus, throughout her earthly life, Mary was free from every stain of sin and “full of grace” (Lc 1, 28).
Next, the Pope recalled the hymn that opens the Letter to the Ephesians (cf. 1, 3-6.11-12), when Saint Paul helps us to understand that the human being is created by God for holiness, a grace, a “beauty with which the Virgin clothed herself from the beginning”, from the womb of she. mother.
Conversion should start today
Francis warned, however, to open oneself today to the grace of God, starting a process of conversion and avoiding deceiving oneself, men and the Lord:
“Be careful. There is no point in being intelligent: constantly postponing a serious examination of one’s life, taking advantage of the Lord’s patience. He is patient, he waits for us, he is always there to give us grace. But we can deceive men, but not God , He knows our hearts better than we do. Let’s enjoy the present moment! This is the Christian sense of enjoying the day. Not enjoying life in the fleeting moment, no, that is the sense of the world. But seize the present to say “no” to evil and “yes” to God; to open up to your grace; to finally stop closing in on himself, dragging himself into hypocrisy. Faced with our own reality, as we are: this is how we are; admit that we do not love God and that we don’t love our neighbor as we should. “
All this through conversion, “asking God first for forgiveness in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and then repairing the wrong done to others,” said the Pope, concluding:
