Mary’s Immaculate Conception Calls Every Baptized Person to a Daily ‘Yes’ to God

Pope Leo XIV on Immaculate Conception: Mary’s pure heart and free “yes” invite all the baptized to welcome Christ daily through prayer and love.

Newsroom (08/12/2025 Gaudium Press )  On the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, Pope Leo XIV addressed thousands gathered in a sunlit St Peter’s Square for the midday Angelus, emphasizing that the privilege granted to the Virgin Mary – being conceived without original sin – is intimately linked to the grace received by every Christian in Baptism.

The Holy Father described the Immaculate Conception as the Father’s loving preparation of Mary to become the mother of the Savior. Quoting the 1854 apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus of Blessed Pius IX, he recalled that God preserved the Blessed Virgin “immune from all stain of original sin” so she could receive “his only begotten Son … whom the Father loves from his heart.”

Yet Pope Leo XIV stressed that Mary’s unique privilege was ordered toward an even greater miracle: the Incarnation. The Angel’s greeting – “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you” – and Mary’s fiat – “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” – revealed both the gift bestowed upon her and her free, faith-filled response.

Drawing on St Augustine’s Sermon 215, the Pope noted, “Mary believed, and what she believed was fulfilled in her.” He added that the same Augustine extends the invitation to every believer: “We also believe, because that which came to be [in her] can also benefit us.”

The Holy Father then drew a direct line between the Immaculate Conception and Baptism. “The miracle which took place at Mary’s conception was renewed for us in Baptism,” he said. Cleansed from original sin, Christians become “children of God, his dwelling place and the temple of the Holy Spirit.” Just as Mary, by a singular grace, welcomed Jesus and gave him to the world, Baptism enables every believer “to cooperate in the Church, each according to his or her condition, for the transformation of the world.”

Pope Leo XIV urged the faithful to renew daily the “yes” Mary pronounced once and for all. That assent, he said, is lived out “with gratitude, humility and perseverance, in prayer and in concrete acts of love,” from extraordinary gestures to the most ordinary tasks and service. Only in this way, he concluded, can Christ “be known, welcomed and loved everywhere and salvation come to everyone.”

After reciting the Angelus, the Pope extended warm greetings to pilgrims, singling out parishioners from Molina, Spain, the cultural association “Firenze in Armonia,” and members of Italian Catholic Action, who today mark Membership Day. He also blessed a torch that will light the Christmas star atop the fortress of Rocca di Papa.

Finally, Pope Leo XIV reminded the crowd of his traditional afternoon visit to the statue of the Immaculate Conception in Rome’s Piazza di Spagna, inviting everyone to unite spiritually in honoring the Virgin Mary.

The celebration concluded with the Pope imparting his apostolic blessing and wishing all “a peaceful feast day in the light of our heavenly Mother.”

• Raju Hasmukh with files from Vatican.va

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