In the image by Giotto, which is in the public domain, Anna and Joachim, the parents of Our Lady, are greeting each other at the Golden Gate of Jerusalem.  As Pope Pius IX decreed in 1854: ‘We declare, pronounce and define that the doctrine which asserts that the Blessed Virgin Mary, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God, and in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, Saviour of the human race, was preserved free from every stain of original sin is a doctrine revealed by God and, for this reason, must be firmly and constantly believed by all the faithful’.

Today let us rejoice in this Solemnity, and in our blessed Mother’s freedom from original sin from the first moment of her conception. May she pray for us in all the details of our lives, and may God bless you.