1st Prevenient Mystery
The Immaculate Conception
The Immaculate Conception was what gave me the impetus to think about my Prevenient Mysteries. How could the Immaculate Conception not be a mystery that we meditate on as part of the rosary?
Prevenient means antecedent or anticipatory. The five mysteries that I came up with come before and anticipate the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, in human history. From the beginning of time God had His plan and that plan included that the birth of the Son would come through a human mother. But not any mother - a mother, Mary, that would be immaculately conceived in the womb or her mother, Anne.
I saw Fr. Donald Calloway give a talk many years ago and I heard one of the best explanations for Mary being conceived without sin. Think about it. If you were God and you had the ability to create your own mother, would you preserve her from the pain of sin? I would. Ponder that for awhile - what would it be like to create your own mother?
Mary being conceived without original sin preserved her from the pain of sin, not all pain. One could argue that she has experienced more pain than any other human being ever created. Not only did she witness the passion and suffering of her son, but as the mother of every human being she has suffered the pain of watching us all in our sinfulness. She knows the price of our sins and separation from her Son. One has to believe that that is why she has come in so many apparitions in the last 150 years. In all of these apparitions she has asked us to pray and repent of our sins, to turn to her Son and pray for our own salvation and that of every person on earth.
In some of the apparitions she will thank the seers for responding to her call. But how many millions of others continue to not heed her call. We need only look at the state of the world today to see how few heed her call.
As we approach the new liturgical year and the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8, now would be a good time to spend time with our Blessed Mother in prayer. Meditate not only on her Immaculate Conception but what it means you’re own life. Do you wear a Miraculous Medal? Do you pray the Miraculous Medal Prayer (O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you)?
For those that live in or near Philadelphia, have you been to the Basilica Shrine of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal? This is a wonderful place to visit in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia. Visit their wesbite for times for Masses, Miraculous medal Novena prayers, etc.
St. Maximilian Kolbe has an extended form of that prayer for the Knights of the Immaculata: O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you, and for all those who do not have recourse to you, especially the enemies of Holy Church and all those recommended to you.
Next Week: 2nd Prevenient Mystery - The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary