Cardinal Vérgez Alzaga presides over Day 7 of the Immaculate Conception Novena in the Basilica of the Twelve Holy Apostles

The Magnificat according to Blessed Cardinal Pironio

The mystery of Mary is a mystery of “spoliation and annihilation, of hiddenness and littleness, of humility and service”, said Cardinal Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, President of the Governorate of Vatican City State, presiding over day 7 of the Immaculate Conception Novena, on Thursday evening, 5 December, in Rome’s Basilica of the Twelve Holy Apostles. A Eucharistic Concelebration was celebrated in the Basilica cared for by the Order of Friars Minor Conventual, prior to the recital of the Rosary and the litanies.

The President of the Governorate was among the Cardinals who took turns presiding over the Novena throughout the nine days. It is the oldest Novena recited in Rome, a tradition that dates back to the Pontificate of Sixtus IV della Rovere (1471-1484). With his Apostolic Constitution, Cum Praecelsa of 27 February 1476, he approved the devotional feast of the Immaculate Conception (8 December), with its own Office and Mass and with the concession of the same indulgences granted on the solemnity of Corpus Domini.

The Basilica’s Cappella Musicale Costantiniana animated the celebration with the traditional hymn, “Tota Pulchra”.

On Sunday, 8 December, Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, the Musical Band of the Gendarmerie Corps will play a hymn in honour of Our Lady before the statue of the Immaculate in Piazza Mignanelli. The parish Church of Sant’Andrea delle Fratte, the Sovereign Order of Malta, the Legio Mariae, the Circle of Saint Peter, the Don Gnocchi Foundation and Unitalsi, will also participate in paying homage to Our Lady.

The following is the Cardinal President’s homily for the occasion.

Dear Friars Minor Conventual who serve in this Basilica,

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I would like to begin this reflection in preparation for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception with a few reflections of Blessed Cardinal Pironio that make us better understand the figure of Mary, Our Mother, words that introduce us to the Mystery of Mary in our lives.

“Henceforth all generations will call me blessed”.

During the Visitation, her cousin, Elizabeth, said to her: “And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord”.

Jesus, her Son, explains the secret of true happiness by responding to the praise of a simple woman of the people, with the words: “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”. True happiness for Christians is understood only in the light of faith and is experienced in the measure of our fidelity. Mary declared she was happy because, in her littleness as a Servant, she believed in the Word of the Lord, and because she gave herself with the generosity of the poor. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. It is not so easy to be poor in spirit. A poor spirit is a simple spirit.

“For he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed”. The first necessary condition for God to enter man and work wonders in him is that he be truly poor: that he have nothing, that he seek nothing, that he not be attached to anything. The mystery of Mary is a mystery of spoliation and annihilation, of hiddenness and littleness, of humility and service. She offered the serene joy of her complete trust in Almighty God, whose name is Holy and who is forever faithful to the promises he made to Abraham and to his descendants. The Magnificat is the song of the poor that find their salvation in God. It is thus also a song of hope. Only the poor know how to truly wait.

Mary’s poverty translates into complete dependence on God, part of her clear awareness of her radical littleness as servant. Because she does not understand, she asks, “How shall this be, since I have no husband?”

Mary too, in her poverty, does not understand the reply but her attitude is one of contemplation and fidelity. “I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word”.

To think of Mary’s poverty – through contemplation and service, serene suffering and compassion – is good for us and helps us understand more profoundly the mystery of the poverty of Our Lady. But there is something – from the Incarnation of the Word to the Cross and Pentecost – that helps us internalize Mary’s poverty even more: her intimate participation in the life and the mission of her Son. Mary begins to live her story of poverty.

Mary experienced this story of poverty, step by step. She experienced it in the difficult history of her people in expectation of the liberation that Christ would bring. She experienced it personally in the company of her Son, preacher of the Kingdom, whom she always accompanied in silence. She understood by experience that Jesus had come for the poor, that his words and gestures, his miracles and his death, were to accompany the poor, lift them up and redeem them.

Mary lived the serene and normal poverty of Jesus starting from her own condition as “handmaid of God”, from her contemplative profoundness, her detachment as a mother. In her poverty, Mary understood the poverty of Jesus. She lived it with him from the Annunciation to the Cross. She loved Jesus’ poor and she suffered with them for his suffering and hope. The Assumption of Mary into Heaven was the fulfilment of her fidelity and the coronation of her poverty. Only the poor – the truly poor – can be fully assumed by Jesus and be brought to Heaven by him to make them participants in the glory of his Kingdom.

Dear brothers and sisters, today we are celebrating day 7 of the great Novena in preparation for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. Faced with so much news on war, destruction, murder, violence, and environmental disasters, we need to find an oasis of purity, a source of peace, a space for splendour. All this can be found in the Virgin Mary, the Tota Pulchra, as the ancient hymn in her honour is called.

When she was asked if she had been afraid during the apparition in the Grotto of Massabielle, Saint Bernadette Soubirous replied with unexpected words: “Oh, yes, … but only the first time; after, it was so beautiful”! The secret to Mary’s beauty is having been conceived without the stain of original sin. In fact, the Lord made of Her a precious “treasure chest” to bear the Son of God in her womb. She is the first fruits of those who will be glorified thanks to Christ’s salvation.

Just as the moon shines in the long night, Mary’s beauty is distinct from all the others. The source of so much beauty does not come from her, but from God. It is so because she reflects the light of the Sun, which is Christ. Completely offering herself to her Son, Mary’s beauty is nothing but the reflection of the presence of Jesus in her womb. We too do not have our own light. Everything comes from God’s grace. Mary invites us to reflect on the fact that if we are distant from Christ, his light cannot illuminate us and we remain in darkness.

Faced with the trials of our times, faced with the darkness of sin, the Church and humanity need the beauty of the Immaculate. In his Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort highlighted that, “She is not the sun, who, by the vivacity of his rays, blinds us because of our weakness; but she is fair and gentle as the moon, which receives the light of the sun, and tempers it to render it more suitable to our capacity”.

She helps us draw nearer to the Lord, she supports us on our journey in search of God, and she encourages us to go forward and not be afraid of the world.

Throughout her life, with the “yeses” she uttered after the Annunciation, the Virgin Mary maintained the purity without the stain of original sin she had received from the Lord. She made herself available to divine will, obedient to its plans, and always with complete fidelity. The secret of her beauty without stain can be found in these words: “Fiat”, I am “the handmaid of the Lord”. God lets us glimpse in Mary his own uncreated beauty, and she lets the glory of her Son pass through her transparency and humility. She keeps nothing for herself and God abides in her silence. The Virgin Mary sums up Israel’s expectation of the promised Messiah and encloses the hope of humanity.

The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception invites us to welcome also our beauty, which is that of being made in the image of God. Unlike all the trends and media that look only to the exterior and not the soul, the true beauty of man is the presence of God within, a reality that is renewed every time that, after sinning, we turn to his mercy.

I conclude by wishing all of you a good Advent journey in the company of Immaculate Mary, who I invoke so that she may bless us and protect us every day.