Today, the seminary community joins the universal Church in celebrating the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Immaculate Conception is one of the four Marian dogmas in the Church; others being: Mary, mother of God (Theotokos), Assumption and her perpetual virginity. The declaration on the Immaculate Conception of Mary was made by Pope Pius IX in his Ineffabilis Deus in 1854: “We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.”

Today, according to A. J. M. and J. K Mausolfe, we mark the dawn of New Covenant, celebrating the gracious preparation by God of his people to receive their Saviour and Lord. However, we must note that the Immaculate Conception does not in any way imply that Mary had no need for redemption. Mary was redeemed by God through Jesus Christ’s redemptive merits from the moment of her life. Hers, therefore, was a preservative redemption from God.