Very early on the 8th of December, I turn on the light and prepare a cup of tea. What is that outside? A strange brightness. Of course, it is close now to the summer solstice in this part of Earth. At 4.55 am this is dawn. With my cuppa brewed I sit down but not before switching off the electric lamp and opening the window drapes. It felt so special as this new morning began that I found myself spontaneously beginning to sing the first verse of a well-known song:
Morning has broken like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken like the first bird
Praise for the singing
Praise for the morning
Praise for them springing fresh from the world.
I take a few sips of my cuppa tea and sing it again. It is quite bright now, and I recall this day in the Catholic Calendar is dedicated to a very special new beginning, the first moment in a new life, that of the Blessed Virgin Mary, her Immaculate Conception. God is there with his blessing for the newly conceived child of Saints Joachim and Anne the future grandparents of his only-begotten Son, Our Lord Jesus.
In the Office of Readings this dawn, Saint Anselm teaches, “Virgin Mary, all nature is blessed in you.”
“Blessed Lady, sky and stars, earth and rivers, day and night – everything that is subject to the power and use of man – rejoice that through you they are in some sense restored to their lost beauty and are endowed with inexpressible new grace.”
The Church prays:
O God,
who by the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin
prepared a worthy dwelling for your Son,
grant, we pray, that, as you preserved her
from every stain by virtue of the Death of your Son,
which you foresaw, so, through her intercession,
we, too, may be cleansed and admitted to your presence.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. – Amen.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
