Day 1: The Immaculate Conception

Day 1 attends to Mary's identification of herself to Bernadette: 'I am the Immaculate Conception.'

The self-identification

Four years after Pope Pius IX's 1854 dogmatic definition, the Blessed Virgin Mary spoke these very words to a fourteen-year-old peasant girl in Lourdes. The Catholic Church received this as a heavenly confirmation of the dogma.

Prayer

Mary Immaculate, you who identified yourself by your unique privilege, intercede for me. Bring me closer to the holiness of your own preservation from sin. Amen.

Conclude with one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and one Glory Be.