Church of the Holy Rosary, Edgewater, NJ

OUR MISSION STATEMENT
We, the members of the Holy Rosary Parish family, are the living sign of Christ’s Presence, reconciling life, light, hopefulness, and healing within our community. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we seek to realize the full potential of our creative energies to be about the work of God in our commitment to the Lord, each other, the Church and our world. We are a community sharing responsibility and celebration. We seek to reflect the love of Jesus in such a way that we burn with desire to be at one with Him. We pray that we are open to hear an understand the good news, while we reach out to those who have not heard it. We come together as one, sharing the Word, the Eucharist, and the Spirit which is our Gift from God.

December: The Month of the Immaculate Conception

The month of December is dedicated to the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. “From all eternity God chose with infinite wisdom the woman who would be the Mother of His divine Son. To prepare for the Word Incarnate a spotless and holy tabernacle, God created Mary in grace and endowed her from the moment of her conception with all the perfections suited to her exalted dignity. St. Thomas teaches that through her intimacy with Christ, the principle of grace, she possessed beyond all creatures a fullness of divine life.” — Liturgical Meditations, The Sisters of St. Dominic

This feast invites us to meditate on the virtue of purity. “Mary alone — ‘our tainted nature’s solitary boast’— never saw her soul’s purity darkened with the dust of any stain, nor did she see in any part of her triumphal course toward heaven any sin or trace of worldliness. By a unique and singular privilege from God she was preserved from original sin from the first moment of her Immaculate Conception; by another privilege derived from the first, the Lord did not permit her ever to be stained even with those unavoidable failings of human weakness.”

In 1693, Innocent XII proclaimed that the octave of the feast of Mary’s Conception be universally celebrated, elevating it at the same time to the rank of double of second class. Pius IX in 1863 (having defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854) promulgated a new Mass and Office.

https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/overviews/months/12_1.cfm

Prayers

O God, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin didst make ready a fitting habitation for Thy Son, we beseech Thee that Thou who didst keep her clean from all stain by the precious death of the same Son, foreseen by Thee, may grant unto us in like manner to be made clean through her intercession and so attain unto Thee. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

Angelus Domini nuntiavit Mariæ

V. The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary. And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.

Hail Mary, full of grace,The Lord is with Thee;Blessed art thou among women,And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God,Pray for us sinners,Now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

V. Behold the handmaid of the Lord.
R. Be it done unto me according to thy word.
Hail Mary, etc.

V. And the Word was made Flesh.
R. And dwelt among us.
Hail Mary, etc.

V. Pray for us, O holy Mother of God.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Hail Mary, etc.

LET US PRAY. Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts, that we to whom the Incarnation of Christ Thy Son was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection. Through the same Christ Our Lord. Amen.