Pope's Intentions
Universal: That the birth of the Redeemer may bring peace and hope to all people of good will.
For Evangelization: That parents may be true evangelizers, passing on to their children the precious gift of faith.
The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary - Solemnity
Commentary of the day
Catechism of the Catholic Church
§ 490-493
"Hail, full of grace! "
To become the mother of the Saviour, Mary "was enriched by God with gifts appropriate to such a role." (Vatican II, LG 56) The angel Gabriel at the moment of the annunciation salutes her as "full of grace". In fact, in order for Mary to be able to give the free assent of her faith to the announcement of her vocation, it was necessary that she be wholly borne by God's grace.
Through the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary, "full of grace" through God, was redeemed from the moment of her conception. That is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception confesses, as Pope Pius IX proclaimed in 1854: “The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin.”
The "splendour of an entirely unique holiness" by which Mary is "enriched from the first instant of her conception" (LG 56) comes wholly from Christ: she is "redeemed, in a more exalted fashion, by reason of the merits of her Son" (LG 53). The Father blessed Mary more than any other created person "in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places" and chose her "in Christ before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before him in love" (Eph 1,3-4).
The Fathers of the Eastern tradition call the Mother of God "the All-Holy" (Panagia), and celebrate her as "free from any stain of sin, as though fashioned by the Holy Spirit and formed as a new creature". By the grace of God Mary remained free of every personal sin her whole life long.