Come Lord Jesus Series; Monday Second Week Advent ( The Immaculate Conception)

 Come Lord Jesus

Advent Wreath: Come Lord Jesus series Icon.

 Feast of Immaculate Conception.

Today is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.
For the sake of completeness in this Advent series, I have included both the liturgical reflection for today’s Marian feast and the Entrance Antiphon reflection for Monday of the Second Week of Advent (Year A).
May Mary’s purity and God’s saving promise deepen our longing for Christ who comes.

 PART I — Monday of the Second Week of Advent (Year A)

Entrance Antiphon:

“The Lord will come with might,

and He will enlighten the eyes of His servants.”

(cf. Isaiah 35:4–5)

Reflection

Today’s antiphon draws our hearts to a promise filled with strength and tenderness: “The Lord will come with might.” These words do not describe a God who overwhelms but a God who restores. The “might” of the Lord is not domination but the power to save, to lift up, to heal what is broken. Advent continually invites us to rediscover God’s strength not as force but as faithfulness.

The prophet continues: “He will enlighten the eyes of His servants.” This is Advent’s interior work — God transforming not only circumstances but perception. Very often it is our way of seeing that needs healing. The eyes of the heart can become dim through discouragement, distraction, or repeated disappointments. Advent is the season when God gently adjusts our spiritual sight, allowing us to recognise His presence where we once saw only darkness.

God’s enlightenment is not a sudden floodlight but the steady dawn. It may begin as a small clarity, a quiet reassurance, a shift in understanding. Little by little, He teaches us to see truthfully: ourselves, others, and the world through His light. This is why Advent is never merely about waiting; it is also about awakening.

“The Lord will come with might.”
For the tired, this is hope.
For the fearful, this is courage.
For the weary-eyed, this is new vision.

Today, the antiphon asks us to trust that God is at work even before we perceive it. His coming is certain. His light is faithful. And His strength is perfectly matched to our weakness.

Practice for Today:
Pray simply:
“Lord, enlighten my eyes. Let me see as You see.”

 PART II — Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception

Entrance Antiphon:

“I rejoice heartily in the Lord,

my soul rejoices in my God;

for He has clothed me with the robe of salvation

and wrapped me in a mantle of justice.”

(cf. Isaiah 61:10)

 

Be It done according to Your Word.

Reflection

On this radiant solemnity, the Church celebrates not an event in Mary’s life that she accomplished, but a gift she received: the grace of being conceived without sin, prepared from the first moment of her existence to bear Christ in perfect freedom. The Immaculate Conception is not about distance from humanity, but about God drawing humanity close — restoring in Mary what He desires for us all.

Isaiah’s text becomes Mary’s voice today: “I rejoice heartily in the Lord.”  Mary rejoices not in herself but in the gracious initiative of God. She is the living sign that salvation is always God’s work, not ours. Her immaculate conception reveals the breathtaking generosity of God, who prepares long before the moment of fulfilment, weaving grace into the very beginnings of salvation history.

“He has clothed me with the robe of salvation.”
Mary wears this robe not as a possession, but as a mission. Her purity is not a pedestal, but a pathway — the way God chooses to enter the world. Mary’s “yes” is only possible because God’s grace has already embraced her. Today is a reminder that everything fruitful in our lives begins with grace.

The “mantle of justice” signifies God’s fidelity. In Mary, the ancient promises to Israel find their flowering. She stands at the meeting point of longing and fulfilment — the daughter of Zion who becomes the Mother of the Savior. On this feast, Advent takes on a Marian tone: quiet readiness, humble openness, joyful expectancy.

Mary teaches us how to receive God: with trust rather than fear,
with openness rather than resistance,with joy rather than self-protection.

Her immaculate beginning becomes an invitation for our ongoing conversion — to let God purify our intentions, heal our memories, and clothe our hearts again in His grace.

Practice for Today:
Pray with Mary’s words:
“My soul rejoices in my God.”
Ask for the grace to welcome Christ with a heart made ready by God.

Come, Lord Jesus

 Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us.