The Immaculate Conception

Today is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, which simply means Mary was conceived without sin. I was born and raised catholic, and I didn't even know this until I was in my early 20's! I always heard 'immaculate' and assumed the reference to Jesus being conceived in Mary's womb.

All Saints Day and today's Feast Day of Mary are my favorite 2 feast days in the year. I love All Saints Day because I love learning about the saints and all their various very human stories of how they because holy men and women of God. And I love today honoring Mary since I've had an extra special devotion to Mary over the past 5 years.

This statue stands over our dining room table. Anyone who comes to our home, will readily see that we have plenty of religious art. And we have a few statues around too. Mike brought this beautiful hand painted statue home from Peru 3 years ago.

Statues are an interesting topic. I was talking to a friend the other day and he was telling me how some people believe catholics worship Mary or worship statues. My first thought is, "What?! We worship them? That is what the Israelites did to their made up god Baal in the Old Testament! But, we just honor Mary  as the Mother of our God. And we honor the saints as holy men and women. Pictures just help us remember them!"

 I realize there are many misconceptions about Catholicism and even many catholics themselves who are not very well educated in their own faith. In fact, I was most certainly one of those individuals less than 10 years ago while in college. Although I always continued to go to mass, I picked and choose which 'beliefs' I wanted to believe. A lot has changed since then and I have fully embraced orthodox catholic teaching since I have learned what it is and it makes sense. We appreciate having statues and pictures of the saints in the house because they remind us of the communion of saints. These people lived before us, and they are with God now, and they can pray for us! Just like I would ask my spouse, family or friends to pray for me, I can ask those holy men and women of God who have already died to pray for us. It is a simple idea, although it may sound crazy to some people who are not familiar with such a concept.

The art work at St. Agnes Church is another reason why I simply love being part of the parish. It reminds me of the churches in Rome. Not to mention, it is such a wonderful teaching tool for the kids. They soak in the art work and pictures and learn the stories at a young age.

In the words of Tom Petty, "If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything."