Often confused with the Birth of Jesus, the “Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary” is about how Mary was conceived. Church teaching is that Mary was conceived through normal marital sexual relations between Anne, her mother, and Joachim, her father, but was born without “Original Sin,” unlike the rest of us. St. Augustine described the birth of Mary as an event of cosmic and historical significance, an appropriate prelude to the birth of Christ: “She is the flower of the field from whom bloomed the precious lily of the valley…through her birth, the nature inherited from our first parents is changed.” Fr. Richard Rohr offers this reflection on this solemnity. “Today’s often misunderstood feast of the Immaculate Conception is saying that God totally gave even Mary’s dignity from the first moment of her conception, and all she could do was thank God for it. It was nothing she merited. She is a metaphor and archetype for every human life.” Fr. Ron Rolheiser, a priest in the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate and President of the Oblate School of Theology, offers these thoughts on this solemnity. “We’re finding it more difficult to dwell in a universe inhabited by unseen presences: the presence of God, saints, one another. Today’s world is reduced to what is physical, what can be measured, seen, touched, tasted, smelled. We’re mystically tone-deaf; all the goods are in the shop window. All I can say about the Immaculate Conception is that if God is the ultimate creator of the physical Universe and is capable of everything, then it’s perfectly reasonable for God to allow an immaculate conception for the mother of the Son of God. I can live with the mystery, even if I still have questions about the infallibility side of it all. But if the Church’s dogma were revoked, it wouldn’t matter to me because if sinners can become saints, then the power of God can work in anyone at any time.”