Immaculate Conception novena to place 2022 in Mary’s hands: Day 3

The Doctrine of the Immaculate Virgin first came into being with reference to the Church as virgin-mother.

As we prepare for the feast of the Immaculate Conception and the close the Year of St. Joseph, we place in the loving protection of both Mary and Joseph, in this time of preparation for Christ’s birth, all the many worries and preoccupations that weigh upon us.

We entrust to her the coming year, asking her to guide us in and through it, that each day of 2022 will bring us closer to her Son.

Reflection

Mary represents the new Israel, which the Scriptures of the Old Testament describe with the symbol of the bride.

And St. Paul takes up this language in his Letter to the Ephesians, where he speaks of marriage and says “Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the Church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (5:25-27).

The Fathers of the Church developed this image, and thus the Doctrine of the Immaculate Virgin first came into being with reference to the Church as virgin-mother and, subsequently, to Mary.

Thus Ephraim the Syrian writes poetically:

“Just as [it was] because these bodies themselves have sinned and are themselves dying, that the earth, their mother was also accursed (cf. Gen 3:7-19), because of this body which is the incorruptible Church, her land was blessed from the outset. This land is the body of Mary, a temple in which a seed was sown” (Diatessaron 4, 15: sc 121, 102).

~Benedict XVI, December 8, 2012

Prayer

This is the oldest recorded Marian prayer, outside of the texts from the Gospels:

We fly to Thy protection, O Holy Mother of God. Do not despise our petitions in our necessities, but deliver us always from all dangers, O Glorious and Blessed Virgin.