I told Erin that I'd put something on the blog

But I forgot when I was supposed to do it. So now seems like a good time.

Who knows what day today is? Ten monopoly dollars to whoever gets it right - and I know you won't have to guess.

That's RIGHT! It's the Solemn Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. That's the day we celebrate when St. Anne conceived Mama Mary in her womb, in the ordinary way that babies are made, but with an extraordinary grace involved. We are all born into the brokenness of Adam and Eve. It's the most provable fact in the world. Just open a newspaper if you don't believe me. Burglaries, rapes, murders, hatred, racism, pollution - the world is broken. In our own lives: missing parents, drugs, gossip that cuts, broken and hardened hearts, loneliness covered up with iPods and video games. The world is broke. That's what Original Sin kinda means. Our default direction is downward.

But not Mary. God spared her the brokenness so that she could be a good mom for His own Son, Jesus. The two of them then can become a tag-team superhero duo, giving sin the ol' one-two. Nothing evil can stand up to the sacred names of Jesus and Mary. Use them often, but never in jokes or as cuss words. Keep them in your heart. She was perfectly open to Jesus, and if we ask her, she will open us to Him as well. Jesus is God's great gift to us, but he's too much for us to handle on our own. So God gave us Mary to get the world, to get each of us, ready. Mary is the gift before the gift.

Which reminds me that Christmas is seventeen days away. Sweet.