VinFormation celebrates the Feast of the Immaculate Conception – The presence of Mary is abundant, clear and solid in the experience of St. Louise and St. Vincent. As Vincentians, let us draw from this wellspring available to us.

St. Vincent and the Immaculate Conception

Within the mystery of the Immaculate Conception, St. Vincent saw the humble and chaste Virgin, emptied of herself so as to welcome God and allow herself to be filled with God. These are fundamental dispositions for those desiring to empty themselves and clothe themselves in the spirit of Jesus Christ: “…from all eternity, God decided to prepare this dwelling place, to adorn her with rarer and more worthy gifts than any other creature, so that she would be a temple of the Divinity, a palace worthy of her Son. If the eternal foresight searched so far to discover this repository for His Son and, once he had found her, adorned her with all the graces that could embellish a created being, as God declared through the angel sent as an ambassador, how much more should we foresee the day and the dispositions required for receiving him.”

Key concepts: welcoming God, being filled with God, clothing oneself with Christ, self-emptying

Visual prayer for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception prepared by MW for VinFormation.

St. Louise and the Immaculate Conception

St. Louise wanted to develop and write her thoughts about the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. She assures us from the beginning of this development that she intends to write them “entirely.” The Church had not yet proclaimed the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception (that would occur on 8 December 1854) when St. Louise wrote this text. This feast, however, so strongly rooted in the people, was already being celebrated. St. Louise’s text perfectly captures what the Church would later teach on the Immaculate Conception. We, sinners, must imitate the life of Mary, honoring her for her great dignity and asking her intercession because no one is as united to Christ as she.

It is worthwhile to slowly read the text of St. Louise and to discover the earnestness of her presentation and the richness of her intuition.

Read the rest of this VinFormation feature based on the translation of an article “Marian Spirituality and the Vincentian Charism “by by Corpus Delgado, C.M., Province of Zaragoza

Graphic courtesy of the dePaul University Vincentian Image Archive – Original in the Motherhouse in Paris