Today is the liturgical celebration of the Immaculate Conception — the national feast day of the United States and a day of obligation for American Catholics.
Over at the Whispers in the Loggia website, Rocco Palmo is marking the occasion by reprinting this year’s Immaculate Conception homily from Washington, D.C. priest Father Milt Jordan, who Palmo calls the “de facto Catholic chaplain to the Upper House.”
The homily, which discusses some of the key developments in the Church’s early history in the United States, is well worth a read.
Father Jordan says this about the example of faith Mary offers to contemporary Americans as she accompanies Jesus at the most trying moments of his earthly life:
“But in each journey, Mary walks with God,” Father Jordan points out. “In every instance, she serves us as a model — a First Lady — of faith and trust. She offers herself to us as a presence that invites us to love God. She walks with our nation as she watches over it and it continues to grow.”
— Tom McFeely