Monday, 9th December, is the great Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (transferred this year from 8th December which is the Second Sunday of Advent). Mary Immaculate is the Patron of our Diocese and so Monday is definitely a day on which to attend Mass to pray for us all. This feast was celebrated in the East from the eight century and in the ninth century was kept in many places in the West. Pope Pius IX extended the celebration to the universal Church when he proclaimed the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception on 8th December 1854. In that definition he expressed its precise meaning, affirming the constant faith of the Church: that Our Lady was conceived free from the stain of the original sin from the moment of her conception. It was a privilege unique to Mary, and a fitting one, for she would one day carry in her womb the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. St. John Henry Newman wrote that “there is no difference in kind between her and us, though an inconceivable difference of degree. She and we are both simply saved by the grace of Christ.” The Immaculate Conception marks the beginning of human redemption. Mary is the first redeemed human being, the first of a new creation in Christ.(Portsmouth Diocese e-News)